Boys Soccer Game Facts
Winner: Cooperative Jaguars
Loser. Christian Learning Eagles
Score: 5-3
Where played: Cooperative
When played: Thursday afternoon
What was at stake: Cooperative’s undefeated season, Christian Learning’s chance to end winless season with a victory. It’s the last game of the regular season.
Game conditions: Small crowd with more Christian Learning than Cooperative supporters. Weather clear and sunny with gusty wind blowing across the field
Background. Jaguars are undefeated and are trying for their first ever perfect season. Eagles haven’t won a game all year, but have come close and are improving. Beating Cooperative would make their season a success.
Your notes on the game:
First half: Jaguars score first on breakaway by Jose Manuel Vasquez . . . Eagles tie the game on long free kick by Andre Larsen into upper right corner of goal from 30 meters out . . . Jaguars take the lead again when Jean Bretel heads in a corner kick . . . Eagles tie game at 2-2 when Richard Enns takes control of a ball bouncing around in front of Jaguar goal and threads it by Jaguar goalie. First half ends 2-2.
Second half: Jaguars get the lead again when Santiago Paz brings the ball upfield, beats a defender, and gets ball past Eagle goalie . . . .game now seems to be going Jaguars way as they fire many shots at the Eagle goal. Vasquez hits crossbar . . . But Eagles strike back as Richard Ling breaks away at midfield and fires in a shot from just outside the penalty box . . . Eagles come within inches of taking the lead with five minutes to go. Larsen takes ball up left side of field, gets the ball past two Jaguar defenders, gets off a crossing pass to Trevor Reed. Reed in midair gets his head on the ball, but it goes just over the crossbar. . . . Eagles seem to lose hope, Jaguars seem to have new energy. Jaguars score twice in closing minutes – one by Juan Alfredo Abuawad and one by Juan Carlos Laguna. Final score: Jaguars 5, Eagles 3.
THE SOLUTION: The key thing in this "scenario" is to understand the drama involved: Winless Christian Learning came close to upsetting Cooperative, but the Jaguars met the test and finally won decisively. There are several ways to write this. I would have done it the following way in an effort to give equal emphasis to both of the key facts:
"The undefeated Cooperative boys varsity soccer team avoided a serious attempt Thursday afternoon to upset them and spoil their championship hopes by previous winless Christian Learning.
"After the dust settled at the Jaguars field in the semi-final game, the Jaguars had a 5-3 victory, and stood only one game away from an undefeated championship season. They had been given a severe test -- and they had passed it.
"The Eagles were left to nurse their remorse and contemplate what might have been. A victory would have made up for all their painful losses this year since there is nothing the Eagles fans enjoy more than a victory over the Jaguars. An Eagle win would also have marked the second year in a row that Cooperative's championship hopes had been foiled by a team with a vastly inferior record (Cambridge had done it to the Jaguars in last year's championship game.)
The game had started off with the Jaguars loking as though they would easily continue their winning ways, as Cooperative star Jose Manuel Vasquez scored the first goal of the afternoon on a breakway.
However Eagle Andre Lasen got a chance to even things up with a long free kick that he threaded into the upper right-hand corner of the goal.
The Jaguars took the lead back when Jean Andre Bretel headed in a corner kick, but the Eagles retaliated a few moments later when Richard Enns took charge of a ball that was pinballing back and forth in front of the Jaguar goal, and slammed the ball in to tie the score at 2-2, where it stood at halftime.
As the second half opened, Cooperative seemed to take charge of the game. First Sanitago Paz brought the ball upfield, beat an Eagle defender, and whacked the ball into the goal putting the Jaguars ahead 3-2. After that the Jaguars seemed to turn the Eagle goal into a shooting gallery, firing shot after shot that goalie Wesdley Ordoñex just managed to save, or that went wide. Vasquez at lone point slammed a point blank shot into the crossbar.
Then the tide reversed yet again. The Jaguar defenders, apparently feeling overconfident, had moved way upfield. As a result when Eagle Richard Ling took charge of a bounding ball at midfield, and headed at full speed toward the Jaguar goal, there was no one between the ball and the back of the net but the Jaguar goalie, and Ling made sure the goalie had no chance when he let loose a hard shot to the left-hand side of the goal from right outside the penalty box. Score tied 3-3.
Buoyed by this sudden turn of events in their favor, the Eagles seemed to open open some fresh cans of Whip-Ass, and suddenly were playing the Jaguars once again on an even basis. And then came the crucial moment for the Eagles. With just five minutes to go Eagle forward Andre Larsen took the ball up the left side of the field and beat two attempts to get the ball away from him.
Finally he stood alone in the corner of the field, with the two Jaguar defenders lying helpless on the ground, and with Larsen's teammate Trevor Reed zooming down the center of the field toward the goal with no defender covering him. The realization spread through the large contingent of Eagle fans: They might be about to take the lead.
Unfortunately for the hopes of the Eagle fans Larsen's pass came in slightly behind Reed, who had to twist himself in midair to get his head on the ball. The ball then bounced up just over the goal, rather than into it.
The near-miss seemed to deflate the Eagles and energize the Jaguars. In the closing moments Jaguar defender Juan Alfredo Abuawad took the ball from his end to the Eagle end to score. Moments later Jaguar Juan Carlos Laguna threaded his way through a seemingly exhausted Eagle defense to add an "insurance" goal, and make the final count Jaguars 5, Eagles 3.
