By Theo Vuong, Staff Writer
After beating the Oilers once before on Huntingotn territory, the Barons boys’ varsity soccer team faced the Oilers once again, this time at home. Both teams played with exceptional defense and brought the game into overtime where Huntington Beach snuck in a quick goal to snag the victory.
In the first half, the Barons quickly gained possession and began to apply pressure to the opposition. The Oilers were quick to adapt, however, and responded with an equally aggressive defense. The game soon dragged on into a stalemate condition, in which both sides were not very clinical and consistently failed to close out their shots. Senior goalkeeper Bryce Nichols kept the Barons in the game by constantly denying the Oiler’s shots and rallying his team with extremely close saves. The half ended with a score of 0-0.
The second half opened up rather slowly compared to the first. The Oilers began to slow down their playstyle and took more methodical shots and the time to communicate. On the other hand, the Barons continued their same highly offensive playstyle. With multiple missed shots, however, the atmosphere around the team changed for the worse and the scoreless game was brought into overtime.
“[I think] the team’s chemistry is good. Our guys just felt the pressure today and we didn’t handle it well,” said Coach Jason Smith.
In overtime, there seemed to be no clear indication as to who was ahead. Possession constantly changed and every striker for both teams found themselves to be choked out in every attempt to score. In a last ditch effort, the Oilers surged at the goal and overwhelmed the defense, giving them the victory 1-0.
“We weren’t playing our best today. We were a little bit off and that made the difference,” said Smith.
