On Friday, Jan 15 the boys soccer team faced off against Riverdale HS in a league competition. The Eagles were 1-0 up to this point in the season.

This match up was the first league home game for the Eagles and they looked to come out strong in their debut. In the past Riverdale had been a tough opponent for the Eagles and also beat them in the Garces finals. The boys knew they would have to play hard if they wanted a chance to take a win from the Cowboys.

The game started out fast paced and evenly matched. Both teams were getting good chances near the goal but also, both teams were defending well. Riverdale struck first making the game 1-0. But the Eagles knew that they could not give up if they wanted to win this game.

Soon after the Cowboys goal, Senior Caleb Goodale scored the first goal for the Eagles, evening the score at 1-1. But Riverdale came back strong as well and scored one more goal before the half ended. The score at the end of the first was 1-2.

At the start of the second half both teams were fired up and ready to be the game’s victor. Riverdale’s new gameplan allowed them to score two quick goals putting them up 1-4. The Eagles needed a new gameplan to get back in this game.

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With another goal from Goodale, the Eagles made the score 2-4 but the game was coming to a close. The score stayed this way for the majority of the half but when there was less than 15 minutes left, the Eagles kicked it into high gear. Goodale scored yet another goal as the game was almost over setting the score to 3-4. And with less than five minutes to play Freshman Brandon Brogan crossed the ball to Goodale to score one more goal allowing the game to go into overtime at 4-4.

The first half of overtime proved to give no team an advantaged as the score stayed even. However, in the last few minutes of the second half of overtime, Riverdale scored their fifth goal of the game on a corner kick that would eventually win them the game.

The game ended with Riverdale as the winner at 4-5. This would make the Eagles record 1-1 in league play.

Despite the loss, Coach Matthew Markarian was happy with how his team played in this thriller of a game.

“I loved how we regrouped after a few tactical changes. We responded by getting back into the game and forcing overtime. At some point we need to put a full game together and win some games we need to minimize mistakes and silly fouls that lead to goals.  When we do that we will have a real possibility to win big.”

Junior captain Jacob Bynum recognizes the team’s need for being better at closing out close games.

“To close out games better, we need to focus more at the end of the game and execute our assignments all the way. We also need to strike on more of our opportunities.”

The Eagles will face off against Parlier HS on Wed, Jan. 20. The Eagles look to improve their record to 2-1 with this game.

For more FC soccer sport shorts check out the latest one: Boys Soccer Sport Short: Minarets
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