:Fallon junior Nick Kulick (5) blocks a shot by Elko senior Richard Adomako. Fallon senior Thomas Robertson (4) looks on. ROSS ANDERSON / EDFP
The Greenwave boys varsity soccer team wasn’t among the lucky Churchill County High School teams to come away with a winning streak in the past week, losing both of their away matches to shutouts against Spring Creek and Elko on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The Wave is currently at 0-6 in both overall and league play, struggling to come up with a win. The Spartans are 5-6-2 overall and 3-2-1 in league play, while the Indians are currently 8-4-1 overall and 4-1-1 in league play.
The Wave’s away game at Fernley today is at 6 p.m. followed by a home game against Dayton on Friday at 6 p.m.
Fallon’a first year coach Miguel Ordunas has faith that the varsity boys can turn it around as they approach the second half of the season, but he also acknowledged that the losses were tough on the team.
“One day we had a really tough time,” Ordunas said. “The Friday game (against Spring Creek) was, I guess, pretty expected as for the amount of play time that everybody got and the physicality we brought. Even though we lost we were still able to keep good possession for some time, got some good stuff going on.”
The game against Spring Creek was more exemplifying of the Wave’s potential with a significant number more shots on goal than the next day against Elko, even though both matches ended without a point for the Wave. The loss to the Spartans ended at 4-0, with the most shots on goal (three) by Wave junior Angel Cornejo who has showed a tireless rushing effort all season despite the Wave’s losing streak.
Saturday’s match against Elko was a particularly tough loss since it was the widest margin the Wave had lost by all season with the 6-0 loss. The turning point of the game came early on, since Elko’s first point in the first half was knocked in by a Wave player by mistake while the two teams skirmished at the Wave goalpost.
This accident only five minutes in seemed to set the tone for the rest of the match. The next five goals for Elko belonged to their seasoned juniors and seniors, able to overpower a shy team of less experienced underclassmen of the Wave who struggled to play as a team. By the end of the match, Fallon was only able to attempt one shot on goal, vastly different from their normal inclination towards breakaways.
“Saturday, I think between the game before and us, I think we just lost focus,” Ordunas said on the game against Elko. “Our team was really just asleep I guess you would say. So they caught us off guard. Everybody was not really there, and unfortunately it showed. So far that would be the worst score that we’ve had of the season.”
In light of the Wave’s away game today at Fernely, Ordunas is trying to get the boys to focus less on their individual strengths and is striving towards a stronger team effort.
“I think now that we’re going into the second part of the season, or almost the second part of the season rather,” Ordunas said, “we need to realize, they the team, needs to realize that we have to start playing as a team and not let he frustration lead to the mentality of “I’m going to do this by myself. I think that if we can focus on teamwork, we’ll be able to catch our wins.”