By Brandon Nguyen
This afternoon, the boys’ varsity soccer team played against Los Alamitos High School and lost with a score of 0-4.
The first half opened up in the possession of Los Alamitos who immediately pushed an aggressive offense. The Barons were forced onto the defense as Los Alamitos passed the ball around hoping to outmaneuver the Barons.
In the 7th minute, Fountain Valley found themselves in a tense situation when Los Alamitos moved close to the goal and attempted to score, but blocked by goalie senior Connor Trapp. Los Alamitos had three more attempts to score in the next five minutes, continually able to get near the goal, but blocked by Trapp.
The Barons turned up the intensity and broke away with possession of the ball. Senior Sebastian Rus rushed down the field and attempted to score, but was blocked by Los Alamitos’ goalie. Los Alamitos’ goalie kicked the ball back into midfield where they played back and forth, neither team able to gain significant ground.
As the game progressed, Los Alamitos got control of the ball and pushed down the field where senior Andres Rodriguez was able to catch up and intercept as Los Alamitos attempted to score. The tides turned when the Barons took the offensive and kept pressure onto Los Alamitos. In the 34th minute, sophomore Myles Ponce shot the ball outside the penalty shot, but was blocked by Los Alamitos’ goalie.
Los Alamitos returned the aggression and got into a scuffle with senior Dylan Duong. The remainder of the game continued with Los Alamitos on the offensive and the Barons unable to reassert control.
“Defending wise, we couldn’t keep up and that’s what killed us. I feel like that’s what we’re going to work on at practice and we need to get more conditioned. We looked pretty tired when it came to having all our players all together on offense and passing,” sophomore Ponce said.
The second half started with senior Jonathan Swete getting a yellow card after a scuffle with a Los Alamitos player. Los Alamitos gained control of the ball and spontaneously moved the ball down the field and almost scored in the 47th minute.
In the next 30 seconds, Los Alamitos scored in a headshot after a corner pass bringing up the score 0-1. Barons then lost possession of the ball and within three minutes Los Alamitos scored again.
Barons resurged with Swete rushing the ball down the field, but blocked by Los Alamitos’ goalie. A scuffle then pursued with Rus receiving a penalty shot that bounced off into control of Los Alamitos. Los Alamitos was able to score again after a long pass and another headshot into the goal. The Barons lost control of the ball and Los Alamitos scored again bringing the score 0-4.
“It was tough. I mean we were depleted of energy and many of us had to juggle club and school soccer simultaneously. I felt like this game wasn’t our best, but we have two more and that’s what we need to focus on,” Rus said.
In the 28th minute of the second half, junior Masin Marini collided with a Los Alamitos player resulting in him being taken out of the game. The Barons kept up the intensity and fought for the ball when junior Christopher Ouelette got in between two Los Alamitos players and kicked in the stomach, resulting in him being taken out.
As the game progressed, Los Alamitos stayed in control and in one final push, Swete got into a scuffle, but could not overcome Los Alamitos defense, ultimately ending 0-4.
“We played pretty good in the first half and it was a tie. From there, we couldn’t just play anything offensively and when you defend for most of the game, the enemy is bound to score. We just have to bounce back and get ready for Monday,” head coach Jason Smith said.
