By Yasir Khaleq, Staff Writer
On a night that would decide their fate going into CIF playoffs, Nicholas Cardenas (’16) came up big in extra time with a goal from 30 yards to win it for the Barons against the Chargers.
The win gave head varsity coach Jason Smith his 200th win in 18 years as coach of Fountain Valley soccer.
“[His 200th win] shows the strength of our program. It shows that over the years, we’ve had a tradition of winning and we’ve been able to sustain it for 2 decades. Its more of an accomplishment for the program” said Smith.
The Barons got the scoring started early, with Ryan Sapp (’17) scoring about eleven minutes into the game. The ball dropped nicely for him around 25 yards out, and he took a chance with a shot. The ball bounced into the bottom right corner, and the Barons had an early lead.
The Barons held onto the lead until Edison scored a scrappy goal with about 15 minutes left in the second half to the tie the game up at 1-1. This score would last until the end of the second half, and the two teams were forced into overtime.
No more than two minutes into overtime, Cardenas won it for the Barons.
“I just shot it, I didn’t really think about it” said Cardenas.
It certainly looked like a moment of pure instinct when Cardenas gathered the ball after a failed corner kick, shifted the ball to his right leg and smashed the ball into the top left corner from 30 yards out.
Fountain Valley’s section of the crowd exploded, as the entire team as well as all the fans stormed the field to celebrate Cardenas’ stunning goal. The Barons certainly deserved it, as they played much better than their top five ranked CIF rival (Edison).
“We worked harder than them. Even our coach was telling us we worked hard. [Edison] was pretty mad, they just kept talking trash too, to every one of us” said Cardenas.
Overall, it was clear that the Barons knew what was on the line in this game, and they performed up to that standard.
“The boys stepped up today. They knew what they had to do, it was a big game, [Edison] are our rivals, and the guys got it done. It was a game of two halves, and then in overtime we won it. The guys played well tonight they stepped up” said Smith.
However, CIF playoffs present a completely different challenge, and one that the Barons must prepare extensively for.
“We gotta up our level of intensity. Its playoff time now. You win, you keep going. You lose, you go home” said Smith.
BBN recently featured the Boys Soccer team:
