Boys soccer keeps kicking forward

Barely losing their first four Bay League games with a score of 1-0 and having one of the top defenses in Bay League, the boys varsity soccer team hopes to turn their season around with some wins. The team reflects on themselves to resolve the issues arising in games. Post-game analysis then leads to practices that are meant to deal with those issues.

“To solve the issue of not being able to score, we have been implementing shooting drills in practice,” sophomore Oscar Chacon said. “Coach Merriwether does a good job focusing on our problems in games; that way we can work on them during practice so that during the next game we play, we will not repeat these same problems.”

Finding the back of the net has been one of the team’s problems this year and during practices, they focus on finishing goals, which means taking a shot when near it.

“We have not been able to attack the opponents, which is a big problem for us,” senior Tyler Eliel said. “[Therefore], we have spent practices doing things to make us more dangerous when attacking and to put us in an attacking mind set.”

The team is determined to better last year’s record of 0-7-3 and though off to a rocky start, the practices designed to strengthen their flaws will help them turn the season around.

“We have been in every game we have played all the way until the end.  We are confident that we will be competitive and come out with some wins in the remaining games in Bay League,” junior captain Tony Bumatay said.

All three captains, junior Bumatay and seniors Pereborow and Eliel, state the importance of being offensively aggressive.

“Having scored zero goals in the first four games is the biggest reason we have lost them all,” Bumatay said. “If [we] do not score any goals, we will never win a game, no matter how good [our] defense is.”

CHRIS SUE/PEN