Davis spirits stay high despite tie

By Nathan Curtis,

HUB staff writer–

For the Davis varsity men’s soccer team, nothing is assured. Winning, players’ health, and the weather are just a few examples. After defeating the Elk Grove thundering herd 6-0 in their previous game, Davis thought they would do even better against the Franklin Wildcats.

Franklin came into this game with three wins and 12 losses, and lost to Davis 3-0 last time they met. “We thought we’d play stronger,” said senior captain and goalkeeper Derek Pleasants.

This match up on an extremely windy Oct. 11 ended in a 1-1 draw despite the fact that many of the Davis players were out either sick or injured.

Early in the first half of the game, Franklin almost landed the first blow when an open shot soared just wide left. Davis wasn’t deterred, and soon after almost tacked one onto the scoreboard after junior Alexander Nelson popped a header onto the crossbar after a corner kick by sophomore DJ Villegas.

Davis got their second big chance after senior forward Alex Herman fired a shot off the right goalpost, just barely missing its mark.

The first half ended with a score of 0-0 even though Davis dominated the possession of the ball.

When the game restarted for the second half, the wind hadn’t died down at all. The soccer gods even decided to add some raindrops to make the game for exciting.

Finally the first strike was landed when Franklin bended a shot in the upper left corner of the net.  The shock of the goal finally woke up the Davis soccer squad.

“We didn’t really start playing our game until they scored,” senior captain Kian Bagheri said after the game.

With about ten minutes remaining in the game, senior Colin Holtz was fouled in the box. Villegas was able to land a PK to even the score. The game ended with a final score of 1-1.

Coach Alex Park is still confident that they will win league. Just one more win against Grant and the league title is theirs. The key is for their offense to come alive. “I think it [the offense] has improved, but we still need to learn,” Park said.