In what has been an up and down season, it was more of the same this past week for Escalon soccer players.
All four levels, varsity boys and girls, JV boys and girls, played against Trans-Valley League opponents.
GIRLS SOCCER
Going into halftime with a 1-0 lead, the varsity Lady Cougars saw Sonora come back with three unanswered tallies in the second half and fell by the 3-1 final to the visitors in a home game on Jan. 22.
The team felt a little snake bit by the end of the day.
“Sonora’s first goal was on a deflection off of one of our defenders and it definitely swung the momentum,” admitted assistant coach Jim Ball.
Jasmine Barron had the goal for Escalon and was the team leader in shots with five. Adriana Romero added two shots on goal and Payton Abbott had one.
“Karisa McNeil had another solid game in the goal with 17 saves,” Ball said. “Reagan Baker, Yareli Cervantes and Payton Abbott did a great job locking down the middle of the field limiting Sonora’s offense.”
The deflection started the scoring for Sonora and another goal was a shot from the side that curved just inside the far post. The other was placed perfectly at the top of the goal, just eluding the fingertips of a leaping McNeil.
“Sonora is one of the toughest teams in the league and our girls played their hearts out,” Ball admitted “Jeremy (head coach Jeremy Titsworth) and I are extremely proud of their effort.”
Friday, the varsity squad went to Hilmar and were shut out there, 3-0.
“The girls played great. Lizzy Castro was pulled up to play keeper for us. She did well, but suffered an injury early in the first half, Kenadie Baker stepped up and played keeper for the first time and did great,” Ball explained. “We gave up 10 goals to Hilmar last time we played them and the defense showed up, limiting them to only three.”
Starting keeper McNeil was out of town and unavailable for that game.
Miley Krieger was also pulled up from the JV squad due to injuries at the varsity level.
“She did a great job for our defense, which was led by an excellent effort by Gweneth Goodman,” Ball said. “We struggled getting shots, but Darla Garcia-Sandoval came off the bench and worked hard for us on the offensive side of the ball.”
For the JV girls, they were 5-2 winners over Sonora on the home pitch Wednesday with seven saves from Lizzy Castro on the afternoon, as well as three goals from Alex Romero along with one from Jaleny Delgado. It was Delgado who stepped in on the road Friday at Hilmar, starting in goal for the first time in her soccer career due to Castro being pulled up to the varsity.
“We lost 4-0 to Hilmar, everybody played in different positions,” JV head coach Lindsay Plasencia said. “It was a tough battle.”
The Lady Cougars have just one game this week, the squads going on the road to face Hughson on Wednesday, Jan. 29 with a 3:30 p.m. start time.
BOYS SOCCER
After taking the early lead, the varsity Cougar boys couldn’t hold off the host Wildcats and ended up falling by a 5-4 final in the Trans-Valley League contest on Jan. 22.
“We started the game quickly and led 2-0 after goals by Diego Arizmendi and Dylan Pena,” said head coach Paul Silva. “Both goals were assisted by Raul Calderon.”
But the squad couldn’t maintain that high level of early play, admitted Silva.
“As the half continued, we lost our edge and conceded three times to be down 3-2 at halftime,” the coach explained. “Sonora scored their fourth early in the second half, but we managed to score twice to tie the game.”
Co Northcutt notched the third goal of the afternoon and the fourth came from Jesse Gomez.
“The final goal by Sonora came with a couple of minutes left. Disappointing result as we had great opportunities to score more, but we also were too open defensively to allow five goals,” Silva said.
After the barrage of scoring on Wednesday, it was a decidedly different game on Friday. Escalon hosted Hilmar and the Jan. 24 game ended in a 0-0 draw.
“Very pleased with the performance defensively, especially given that we were without a number of key players due to injuries,” noted Silva. “We changed our formation and had a number of players in new positions, but the boys made it hard for Hilmar to create scoring chances. We created some great scoring chances but didn’t capitalize.”
Still, the coach said he was pleased with the effort from his players, but they were all disappointed not to get the win.
The JV boys were big winners on the road at Sonora, outscoring the host team by a 5-0 final in the Jan. 22 contest.
“Juan Pablo had our opening goal, Jaime Tristan with the second and also getting an assist,” noted JV coach Polo Rodriguez. “Angel Rodriguez with an amazing shot outside the box got our third goal, Brandon Beltran with a very precise shot also outside the box got our fourth goal and of course Fidel Segura got our fifth goal. The boys played hard and finished the game strong.”
Friday the JV Cougars were home to host Hilmar.
“The game started pretty even and as it progressed Antony Cerceda got a hat trick, obtaining all three goals and one assist from Miguel Arce,” said Rodriguez.
The coach said it wasn’t the best performance from his team, but it was strong enough to secure their second shutout win of the week, 3-0.
