Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Tiger boys to meet Jaguars for first time

LLHS scores 5 second-half goals vs. Gallup

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas It wasn't too surprising the most talented Los Lunas High School's boys soccer team was able to easily score more goals than the visiting Gallup Bengals. It was nice, however, for some of the newcomers to the Tigers' varsity to gain confidence with some goals of their own.

Five goals in the game's final 20 minutes, all from different players, helped the Tigers roll to a 7-1 win over the Bengals at Volunteer Field in Los Lunas' season opener. The Tigers' short passing game and ability to use the sidelines for offense seem to help the hosts pull away after Gallup (0-2) had pulled to within 2-1 five minutes into the second half.

Los Lunas (1-0 after Saturday) was slated to host Carlsbad late Tuesday after News-Bulletin press time, and will trave to Valencia on Thursday at 4 p.m. The Tigers have a home game set for Saturday when Santa Fe High comes to LLHS at 11 a.m.

"The goal we gave up was due to miscommunication," said Julian Flores, a Tiger senior who scored both of his team's first-half goals. "But we really picked it up after that. We started pressuring their defense more, moving the ball to the outside and to the corners, and crossing it in to the people in the middle."

Flores scored on a direct kick just four minutes into the game, then put in a 20-yarder three minutes later for a 2-0 lead that would go unchanged until the second half. LLHS managed several scoring opportunities in the first half, but seven shots on goal and other near-misses kept the lead from growing.

Alex Ochoa pushed a ball past LLHS goalkeeper Spenser Waquie in the 45th minute, but that was one of only two shots Waquie would see in the match. The Tigers peppered Bengal keeper Taylor Payton with 17 shots in the match.

Jose Jaime-Rodriguez scored after a direct kick attempt in the 60th minute and Gerardo Solis added another goal two minutes later against Gallup, a team that lost 3-0 in its season opener at Belen last week.

Zachary Jones, David Linares and Michael Loveless added goals late as play got a bit chippy. Flores went down hard on a play that resulted in a yellow card to Gallup's Bryan Peterson, and after a brief rest, Flores returned and was given a yellow card himself after seemingly light contact with a Bengal player.

Flores said the physical game was all the more reason for players to focus on fundamentals and to not back down.

"We had to show them (Gallup) that we're out there, too," said Flores. "Our hard work in practice is paying off. Today went just like practice drills."

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