Blue Devils crush Laguna Creek

The men’s junior varsity soccer team had almost complete possession against Laguna Creek in a blowout 6-1 win on Oct.18.

According to head coach Alex Park, the team excelled in passing the ball, which helped the team control the game. Midfielder Brian Birt said, “Our passing and ball movement was extravagant.”

This game put the Blue Devils at 19 wins and 1 loss, an impressive record. Although this game did not majorly change the standings, Park said the game was important because “we are hoping to finish the season strong.” The game is a major score improvement over Sept. 29’s 3-0 win over Laguna Creek.

This high-scoring game is typical considering the Devil’s goal scoring in the season, which is 94 goals in the season, which sets a new team record from total goals scored in one season.

Freshman Alex McIntyre scored two goals with his speed, the first coming from the ball bouncing around in the penalty area with McIntyre there to finish it off. His second goal, much later in the game, came from a bouncing through ball, easily chipped over the keeper for the fifth goal in the game.

Other goals came from freshman Daniel Perez following some passing plays working through the defense, and then sophomore Paul Hinton found Perez open to slot a low, hard shot past the keeper. Freshman Joe Rainer also scored when McIntyre sent a bouncing cross which Rainer volleyed off the post and into the net.

Towards the end of the first half, Ken Hashimoto scored off of a corner from Antonio Rodriguez. The last goal of the game came from freshman Raunak Mandahar slamming a low cross from Rainer into the corner of the net.

The goal from Laguna Creek came from some defensive mishaps that caused a penalty kick. The forward taking the kick buried the ball in the bottom left corner. Even though the goalkeeper Matthew Linvell dived the right way, he wasn’t able to save it.

Other defensive mishaps resulted in close chances for Laguna Creek, one of which went wide, and one Linvell tipped over the goal.

According to Park, these defensive errors happened because players were playing different positions then they were used to. Due to the somewhat relaxed nature near the end of the game, Park substituted nine players at a time, which Park said, “We don’t do that normally.”

Also during that game, the team was missing David Villegas, the team’s top scorer, due to an Under-14 National Team Camp.