Draw puts dent in Mustangs’ playoff hopes

In a regular-season match that was played with the intensity and atmosphere of a postseason contest, Jay and Taft's boys soccer teams battled to a 1-1 draw in a District 29-6A match Saturday afternoon at Gustafson Stadium.

The result leaves Jay (117-4, 7-5-3) in need of assistance if the Mustangs are going to make the postseason. Jay closes its regular season on Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Brennan (146-2, 9-5-1) at Gustafson

Stadium and the Mustangs have to beat Brennan and hope Sotomayor (1-17-2, 0-13-2) upsets Warren (10-9-3, 8-5-2) later Tuesday night at Farris Stadium for Jay to qualify as the No. 4 team from District 29-6A.

“I'm proud of our effort today,” said Jay head coach Kevin Poore, whose team is now 3-1-1 in its last five matches. “The kids played hard and shared the ball well. We were just unlucky. We had a lot of chances to score, but we just weren't able to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Jay had most of the offensive pressure for the first 20 minutes of the match, forcing Taft goalie Josue Solis to make four saves in the opening 10 minutes and also hitting the left post with a header in the 18th minute.

Taft (8-9-5, 5-7-3) started getting consistent offensive pressure in the middle portion of the first half before finally breaking through at the 27:17 mark. The Raiders' Ray De La Rosa got a long pass over the top in the lefthand side of the Jay penalty area, settled the ball and then buried a shot in the bottom right corner of the net to give Taft a 1-0 lead.

“We've been playing well lately and have been building some momentum,” said Taft head coach Luis Medina, whose squad is 3-0-1 in its last four matches. “We came into today missing some players, but we knew ( Jay) had a chance to go to the playoffs, so we knew we wanted to play hard.”

However, the Mustangs were able to tie the match just before halftime. After a foul by the Raiders gave Jay a direct kick on the right wing, the ball was sent into the Taft penalty area and after a deflection, it landed at the feet of Carlos Orozco, who scored to send the match into the break tied, 1-1.

Jay came out of the break pressuring the Raiders' offensive third, searching for a goal that would give the Mustangs the lead. However, Taft's defense withstood the charge and the Raiders had their own chances to take the lead in the middle part of the second half. As the half wore on, Jay continued to push forward in hopes of getting a goal that would keep their postseason hopes alive, but the

Mustangs were unable to find the back of the net and the match finished in a draw.

“We moved our center back (Chase Sherburne) into the midfield to give us some more speed and aggression, but we didn't make a lot of personnel moves,” said Poore. "We created enough opportunities to win the match. We just didn't score off of them."

Taft also closes its season Tuesday, taking on District 29-6A leaders Harlan (17-2-2, 14-0-1) at Gustafson Stadium with a noon kickoff.