Soccer Dragons defeat Kingsbury
There was almost as much slipping and sliding as there was soccer Tuesday night at Collierville. But the Dragons did a better job of keeping their feet, along with their composure.
Marco Carbognani scored twice as the Dragons improved to 4-0-2 on the season with a wellearned 3-2 victory over Kingsbury. The game matched two teams that were in the state tournament last year and have great shots at returning — the Dragons in AAA and the Falcons in A-AA.
“It was a very slippery f ield,” said Kingsbury coach Jihad Haidar. “But to be fair, both teams had to play on it. And Collierville has a great team this year; they are absolutely loaded.”
Said Collierville senior midfielder Michael Roberts, “A bunch of kids had to change their cleats at halftime ... there was a lot of sliding. But it was a real good win for us.”
Early on, it looked like it would be all Collierville.
Carbognani gave the Dragons a lead just six minutes into the game when his shot ricocheted off a Kingsbury defender and into the net. He got his second just before halftime to give his team what looked like a comfortable lead.
“Marco is the kind of player that has a nose for the goal,” said first-year Dragons coach Drew Hensarling. “He’s good at fighting through tacklers and fighting through defenders to get his shot off.”
Kingsbury, which lost for the first time in four games this year, looked more lively after halftime and got a goal back after a strange sequence early in the second half.
The Falcons won a penalty when Zakaria Warsame was brought down in the box. Hozyer Saeed scored, but the referee ordered a re-kick. This time, Dragons goalkeeper Brady Thornberry saved, but the rebound came back out to Saeed, who put it away.
Roberts though made it 3-1 before the clapping died down, capitalizing on some shaky Falcons defending.
Tony Marquez scored Kingsbury’s second with about five minutes to go in the game but Collierville was able to smartly kill off the match, making good use of time-wasting.
“We did a good job of keeping our composure and closing out the game,” said Hensarling. “It’s still early and there are still some things we have to tweak.”