by Yasir Khaleq, staff writer
Saving their absolute best for the last game of the season, the Barons offense completely obliterated Newport Harbor on Wednesday, scoring six goals, with two of those in the first two minutes and another two in the first 15.
Ulu Hammouri-Davis (’17) scored the first goal, tapping in after a ball across the face of goal left the keeper helpless and the goal wide open. Richard Montes (’17) scored a minute later in an extremely similar fashion. 10 minutes later, Ethan Mack (’18) scored 2 goals in successive fashion to put the Barons up 4-0 over a hapless Newport team. Newport scored right before halftime to soften to scoreline a bit.
The onslaught continued in the second half. At the 65th minute, Andre Nguyen (’19) carried the ball down the sideline, exposed a defender, cut in onto his favored right foot, pondered the placement of his shot and fired into the side of the net. Montes scored his second goal of the game two minutes later in an almost identical fashion to his first goal. Newport scored again to make the score 6-2.
“I couldn’t have written it any better than that. I’m glad this game meant something for us. It gave us an opportunity to play for something other than just pride and for our seniors. Rather, it was a game where these guys got to prove that we have life,” said Jason Smith, varsity head coach.
Despite the excellent performance by the boys, the win carries a sense of “what if’s” with it. The offensive prowess and ability on display against Newport on Wednesday has been completely missing all season, even at their best moments. There was a distinct difference between the Barons that showed up versus that Barons that have usually shown up this season.
“I think we just executed today. We’ve been in every game this season, but we haven’t executed,” said Smith.
Regardless, it was the perfect end to the season. This team is full of bright hard-working talent, whose abilities range from lung-busting 70 yard sprints to dribbling through an entire defense. Work-ethic and technical ability combined to good effect on the day. Everyone was happy with the result regardless of it’s frustrating implications.
“Today we were more motivated to keep our season going, we really needed this win today. I think our seniors were playing hard today, we didn’t want to go out with a loss. Seniors like Joey Nguyen were holding down the defense really well,” said Montes.
Despite their shortcomings this season, the boys still have a shot at making CIF playoffs. 8-8 on the season, they are eligible for a spot. If they do make it through, it won’t be easy whatsoever. They’ll have to play a top seed, mostly likely ranked nationally. However, this game still goes to show that there’s an extreme amount of fight in this team and they won’t be put down easily.
“I think we can still beat anybody. If we get into that playoffs, we’ll have to play a tough team, but I think these guys are playing well,” said Smith.
