The Avery men’s soccer team tasted its first loss of the 2010 season last week when it traveled to Gamewell last Tuesday, August 31st to take on the West Caldwell Warriors. Avery started well and scored the first goal of the match, but three unanswered West goals downed the Vikings in the end in a 3-1 loss.
Two evenings later the Vikings ventured to Boone to play neighboring Watauga in another non-conference match. Avery surrendered a goal to fall behind, but rallied for the equalizer, finishing the match in a 1-1 tie.
On an extremely warm evening for soccer, West Caldwell entered its match with Avery with great confidence and desire. In spite of the elements and a strong Warriors team, it was the Vikings who broke the ice and netted the game’s first goal. In the match’s 13th minute, returning Viking player Jorge Arreola, who had missed a week’s action with a concussion, sent a through pass to teammate Daniel Lusk, who ran down the ball, raced past the defenders, and placed a shot past the keeper for a 1-0 Avery lead.
An aggressive West Caldwell club, who had been pressuring Avery’s defense since near the outset of the match, finally managed to break through to tie the match in the 18th minute, when Alex Corrales notched the equalizer for West off an assist from Jonathan Nava. The match remained tied at 1-1 until halftime.
Early in the second half, the Vikings were dealt a serious blow when senior defenseman and leader Brock Yackey was sent off sent off the field with a red card. The referee determined that Yackey had come in on a tackle too aggressively making a play for the player and not the ball. The call left the Vikings a man down and looking to improvise.
“That sent us scrambling as we tried to figure out how to not only play a man down for the rest of the half, but more importantly, who do we replace Brock with?” Avery head soccer coach Tom Evaul said after the match regarding the call. “With two freshmen, a sophomore and a first year player playing defense, there wasn’t much to choose from without it totally changing
our defense. Our solution was to put Daniel Lusk back there, having played defense some last year. But that took all our speed off the front.”
In the 45th minute, the Warriors were able to tally a second goal to grab the lead when Ivan Juventes slipped a shot just past Viking goalkeeper Alex Magner and into the goal. Just ten minutes later, West added a third goal off the weak side of the Avery defense for insurance.
It appeared that Avery would have a chance to cut the West lead when Daniel Lusk was aggressively taken down and fouled in the penalty box, which would mean an issued card against the offender and an automatic penalty shot. However, instead the official issued no card moved the ball outside the penalty area while awarding Avery only a free kick.
After the loss, Coach Evaul reflected on what factored into the defeat.
“My concern has always been the team’s mental toughness and their consistency. With a player down, the guys never gave up. As a matter of fact, I think they actually stepped up their game, but Brock was just too key a player to lose and we never could do what we needed to do to get back into the game,” the coach commented. “I feel we learned from the game lessons I hope we will take with us the rest of the season: staying tough until the very end, controlling the emotional and mental aspect of the game, dealing with heat and grass, dealing with frustrations of possible missed calls, playing a man short and compensating for that. Hopefully, the loss taught us what we needed in order to be a more competitive team especially as conference starts.”
A couple of days later the Vikings hopped the bus to Boone to play the Watauga Pioneers. Once heated rivals on the pitch in years past, this year’s renewal was a more civil affair as both teams played hard and gave great effort throughout the match.
The two teams played to a scoreless tie at halftime, but from the coach’s perspective it appeared the Pioneers had more pep in their step out on the turf at Jack Groce Stadium.
“Watauga came at us hard and aggressive just as West had done, with good quick passes, a lot of talking, winning the 50/50 balls, and transitioning back on defense. They had us on our heels the entire first half, but our defense held them at bay,” Coach Evaul said. “I wasn’t particularly happy with how we played the 1st half. I thought we were giving them too much space and time, and we weren’t doing much offensively as far as holding onto the ball and moving if effectively. I feel that if the coaching staff could get through to the offense how important a good passing game is with quick one and two touch passes, we would be a team to contend with the rest of the year, but I didn’t see any evidence of that in the first half, nor did I see much intensity from our team.”
Once play resumed for the second half a Watauga attacker weaved his way past several Avery defenders and found a wide open shot on goal. Avery keeper Alex Magner attempted a dive for the ball, but the Pioneers managed to slip the shot in goal for a 1-0 lead.
Rather than deflate the Avery club, the Watauga goal energized the Vikings and amped up the team’s intensity. Around the 60-minute mark, Forrest Sickler sent a pass through to teammate Isauro Estrada. Estrada then sent a 25-yard shot past the Pioneers keeper into the net for the equalizer.
It was almost as if the Watauga goal was what it took to bring the team alive and begin putting into play the good transition, passing and intensity we stressed at halftime. We started attacking the ball with more intensity, and some of the players were all over the field like mad hornets
going after Watauga,” Coach Evaul said. “We were doing a better job of getting the ball
downfield and putting pressure on Watauga’s defense.”
The final minutes of the match were a defensive battle, with both teams getting opportunities but could not net a game-winner, leaving the match in a 1-1 tie.
Prior to the match, the coaches agreed not to play overtime in the non-conference match, since Watauga had just played the previous evening and Avery had been through a pair of matches already during the previous three days.
“We gave everything we had in the second half, proving we did have the kind of team that can play good soccer when they do the things they are capable of doing. It was a team effort
with no one player standing out over any other,” Coach Evaul said after the match. “I was and continue to be pleased with the manner in which Alex Magner has come along at goalie. I
don’t believe I have ever coached a freshman who has learned a new position as fast and as effectively as he has, thanks to his determination, and the coaching of Daniel Jimenez and Morgan Bounds. Credit also has to be given to coach Mitch Bledsoe who has been working
with the experienced group, while coach Pat Daniels has been bringing the new players up to a level that will contribute to the team as the season progresses. This team wouldn’t be what it is without these four coaches.”
Avery finished the week with an overall record of 5-1-1, much improved from the 2-3-2 mark the team had at the same point last season.
The Big Red traveled for a non-conference match earlier this week against North Henderson, and the squad hosts Owen to open Western Highlands Conference play this Wednesday, September 8th. The Vikings travel to Thomas Jefferson Academy on Monday, September 13th.
