Friday the Huntsville Eagles took on the #2 seed out of the 3-4A Conference the St Joseph Bulldogs in the first round of the state soccer playoffs winning 4-2.
“St Joe was a physical team that tried to overpower our defense with direct attacks on our goal,” said Eagles Head Coach Kevin Shinn. “Our defense lead by Senior Weston Nelson and sophomores Zack Hawkins and Dallas Prouty were the quiet giants for us on the field today. Just like most of the season they never came off of the field playing all 100 minutes of the game. They are constantly taking a pounding for us back there defending our goal but make play after play for us. Today we had to move Senior Ricardo Vasquez back from his midfield position to help with the defense and he was incredible. Ricardo was all over the field making plays and backing up his teammates.”
Through two 40 minute halves and two 10 minute overtime periods the two teams were locked in a tight defensive struggle resulting in a 0-0 tie. This resulted in the game being decided by penalty kicks with each team choosing five players to take a shot on goal. If the winner is not determined from those kicks they continue on until one team gains a 1 goal margin.
Huntsville lost the toss and had to shoot first. Senior Angel Hernandez stepped up an calmly gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead burying his shot deep into the Bulldog net while the first Bulldog shooter hit his ball wide of the mark. The second Eagle to take a shot was sophomore Will Embry who placed his shot just inside the goal to raise the Huntsville advantage to 2-0. The second and third St Joe shooters scored while Senior Ricardo Vasquez and junior Juan Hernandez for the Eagles scored as well giving the Eagles a 4-2 lead with two Bulldogs remaining to shoot.
“When the game came down to penalty kicks I felt confident that we could win the game based on the strength of our shooters and the way our junior goalkeeper Pablo Chombo has been playing,” said Shinn.
The fourth Bulldog shooter fired a shot toward the left Eagle post only to be denied by a diving Chombo securing the Eagles their first playoff win.
“Our midfield and our defense had their best game of the year today,” said Shinn. “We came out of this contest a little beat up but I think we’ll be ready to go tomorrow against DeQueen.”
Tags:
angel hernandez, charles scudday, dylan white, huntsville eagles, ismail vasquez, juan hernandez, kevin shinn, marcus dorsey, matt weaver, pablo chombo, ricardo vasquez
Posted at: 11:24 PM | Add Comment
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