By Andy Kim, staff writer and photographer
This past Wednesday, the Barons went head-on against the Newport Harbor Sailors at home. With an extremely close match, both sides battled with their hard, and the Barons came out victorious with a score of 2-1 with two overtimes on their first Sunset League game.
During the first half of the game, both teams had tremendously close shots on goal, however, both keepers stood strong on defense. Goalkeeper Slater Kucera (’17) managed to save 3 shots on goal for the Barons. Then with one minute and 53 seconds left in the first half, Co-Captain Larry Turner (’15) scored by tumbling with Newport’s keeper and two other defenders. By the end of the first half, the Barons led 1-0.
“I didn’t want to lose, I just wanted to win no matter what, and no matter what was happening, I was just going as hard as I could,” said Co-Captain Jake Shubin (’15).
The second half didn’t look so bright for the Barons. The Sailors were able to make a comeback by making a shot from the 16 yard line and scoring a goal with 13:05 left in the second half. Goalkeeper Kucera (’17) managed to step up for the second half by making four saves.
With the score tied, 1-1, by the end of the second half, the match went into an overtime period. In the first overtime, both sides were unable to find their way to victory: Kucera (’17) saved another goal during this period to prevent the victory going to the Sailors.
Having no team securing a goal in the first overtime period, the game was forced to go into a second overtime. As the clock counted down to the last minute of the game, Jake Arko (’15) scored the winning goal with a header, making the overall score 2-1, and the Barons taking the win against Newport Harbor.
“That was the best moment of my life so far,” Arko (’15)said. “We give it our heart. We might not be the strongest or the fastest, but we have got the heart. We are going to go all the way.”
