TIGERS, HAWKS TIE IN SOCCER
Tokay was looking for its second consecutive win of the season.
Liberty Ranch wanted to notch its fourth victory in five games.
Neither one of those came to pass when they met in an area non-league boys soccer game at the Grape Bowl on Tuesday night, which featured a flurry of activity in the final four minutes of their 2-2 tie.
The game was tied at 1-1 in the 76th minute when Tokay (1-0-1), which had limited shots on goal for most of the second half, found an opening. Tigers striker Ivan Rosales booted what could have been the go-ahead goal on a followup shot in front of the Hawks’ net for a 2-1 lead.
“We got a break,” said Tokay coach Ruben Gomez. “Ivan was there to recover. It looks like we might pull it out. It was a good game.”
But Liberty Ranch (3-1-1) responded on its next possession. Hawks forward Armando Gomez took the ball and moved down the sideline, then launched a pass across the field to teammate Anthony Chavez, who shuffled the ball near the Tigers’ box before he slipped it into the net in the 78th minute to tie the game at 2-2.
“I think the last four minutes were chaotic,” said Liberty Ranch coach Andrew Fisher. “It was great to see us come back.”
Gomez added, “They weren’t going to stop pressing. We should’ve been able to defend the last three minutes. We just got back on our heels.”
Tokay was now looking to break the tie, and a minute later almost did. But Liberty Ranch goalie Trevor Arnston caught a line-drive shot by Tokay midfielder Sebastian Quiroz and put the ball back into play at midfield.
Liberty Ranch and Tokay battled frantically to punch in a goal into the other’s net in the final minute. But the battle remained at midfield when the final whistle blew to end the game.
The Hawks scored their first goal in the 52nd minute of the game. After a direct kick in which the Hawks were able to get the ball in front of the Tigers’ box but a shot on goal was missed, Gomez found the ball and punched into the side of the net to tie the game at 1-1.
Tokay adjusted its defense at halftime that kept the Hawks’ shots on goal limited for all but the final four minutes of the second half. That included having midfielder Sebastian Quiroz playing more at his possession instead of the backline. That helped the Tigers slowing down the Hawks’ passing attempts at midfield, as they were forced to move the soccer ball down the sidelines at times.
“We had a pretty solid group back there,” Gomez said. “We needed to get more possession of the ball. We were losing the midfield too easily, and they (Liberty Ranch) was taking advantage of it.”
The Tigers led 1-0 at the eighth minute of the game. Moving the ball down the sidelines, Rosales moved the ball to the center of the Hawks’ box. Showing signs of passing the ball, Rosales opted to keep the ball and shot it into the back of the net for the Tigers’ lead for most of the game.
Gomez felt that the Tigers’ offense
slowed down a little bit. That was because the Hawks’ defense was spread throughout the field, keeping pace with Tokay throughout the remaining 32 minutes of the first half. Tokay only had two shots on goal, which were met by one Liberty Ranch player stepping up to stop the drive and Arnston coming out of the box to get the ball and put it back into play.
“We pretty much dominated the first half,” Fisher said. “It was good to see us recover. We’ve done a lot of things right this year; we were moving the ball well. We just need to how to turn that into goals.”
Gomez added, “In the first half, we weren’t playing very well. We had a lot of possessions. We had no control on the ball. We started playing better in the second half, and it showed.”