Boys soccer can prevent shutouts, but not losses

While it seemed like they were beginning to climb over the hump, the Wave varsity boys soccer team lost their home match to Lowry on Saturday, 6-1.

The Wave is 0-9-1 overall and in D1-A, while the Buckaroos are 6-6-1 overall and 5-4-1 in D1-A.

The Wave’s next match is at home against South Tahoe on Saturday, at 12:30 p.m.

Despite their loss, the Wave were able to pass equally strong as their opponent, as well as avoid being shutout as they had been several matches in a row in the first part of their season.

The Buckaroos, like in many previous matches, scored early on the Wave in the first half with two goals resulting from breakaways.

While possession was even throughout the first half, although in past matches the Wave has had trouble getting the ball out of their own territory, the main issue revealed was that the Wave was divided into one on one encounters, even when they broke away and were unable to outrun the Buckaroos defenders.

Wave senior Pedro Barajas in particularl had trouble keeping control, whereas he is normally a noticeably fast player on his way to the net.

Barajas would recognizes this and try to kick downfield, but the Buckaroo defenders blocked this trajectory with their own bodies, a theme that would allow them to gang up on the Wave defenders and make room for Lowry junior Ariel Gonzalez to breakaway and score from a corner kick on the right of the goalpost.

This brought the score to 3-0 with a few minutes left in the first.

Wave junior defender Nick Kulick was uncharacteristically easy to steal from due to Buckaroos senior captain Jordan Diaz maneuvering through his legs every time he broke away.

Still, Wave seniors Thomas Robertson and Jaime Gonzales were able to match the Diaz’s speed, as well as the speed of the other break away forwards of the Buckaroos, and were able to prevent passing that would’ve let Lowry score several more points in the first half.

Barajas and Hopkins would continue to have control issues on their way to the Lowry goalpost, most of their would be goals stolen by the footwork of Lowry senior Brian Shettler who would match their speed on the way to the net.

In a few minutes, Shettler would charge through the middle despite a surprising amount of trouble from Wave sophomore Jose Garcia and score the fourth goal for Lowry, bringing the score 4-0 at halftime.

The second half began with the Wave improving on defense, particularly Gonzales who learned from the Buckaroos not to fear putting his body in front of the ball. This helped the Wave disrupt more downfield kicks.

Wave sophomore Jose Garcia and senior Chase Sanches were both aggressively unafraid to dive and be tripped when the defense tried to block their shots on goal.

The first of the Wave to outrun Lowry without tripping on his way to the goal was Barajas, and even then some interrupting footwork from Shettler caused an over the net kick, the second shot on goal of this half after Hopkins.

When Lowry kicked backwards after being unable to push past the Wave’s defense, the Buckaroos had defenders to support them and let them keep making plays, unlike Fallon, which was too spread out.

Wave junior Angel Cornejo, who is usually the most aggressive member of the Wave offense, was fought all match by Buckaroos senior Trevor Burroughs, who would gang up on Cornejo with two others and make his speed for not.

Though Wave senior goalkeeper Michael McCormack was still his usually self, the fifth goal for Lowry, scored again by Gonzales, was an unfortunately easy miss that rolled right by him.

Rallying after, Hopkins broke away down the left side of the field, maneuvering around three defenders for a shot on goal that bounced off the goal post.

This paired with another goal within the next two minutes by Lowry, bringing it 6-0, kept the sidelines on the edge of their seats believing the Wave would suffer another shutout.

Though all evidence pointed to this, with speed to get him around the Buckaroos’ defenders, Wave senior Davis Koenig scored the first and last goal for the wave with three minutes left, bringing the score 6-1 to end the match.