Stallions too much for Hawks in rout
Courtesy of Christoper Cross
Madera South’s David Vasquez tries to dribble around Liberty’s Landon Howe during Friday’s non-league victory over the Hawks.
The defending Div. III NorCal CIF State Championship and Central Section champions, the Madera South Stallions boys soccer team, proved too much for the Liberty Hawks, especially when the Hawks had to play a man down for the final three-quarters of the match.
The Stallions scored three goals in the first half and added four more in the second. Madera South spread the wealth as the goals were scored by seven different players with four players credited with assists in the 7-0 victory Friday.
However, it was in the 15th minute when Liberty’s Michael Rivera, who had fallen near the goal line in front of the box, put his hands up to block his face on a shot attempt, blocked a potential goal and was handed a red card forcing the already overmatched Hawks to go a man down.
“When we got the man advantage over them, it helped a lot,” said interim head coach Jose Mendoza. “We were able to have more possession and the goals started to come when we moved the ball.”
With the big advantage, the Stallions worked on fundamentals to improve their overall game.
“It’s important to work on fundamentals and basics,” Mendoza said. “We are trying to move the ball and go side to side. We want to work on everything we work on in practice like corners and transition and see what we can penetrate through up the middle or go out wide and get some crosses for shots.”
The goalkeeping combination of Luis Segura and Ishmael Ambriz shut out the Hawks.
Mendoza said he was able to get every player into the game and they all received significant playing time.
“The bench was able to help out a lot,” Mendoza said. “They got a lot of minutes. We saw the improvement in the first and second half.”
The combination of Luis Diaz and David Vasquez helped set up the key moment in the match. Diaz shot across the face of the goal and Vasquez set himself on the opposite side of the goal. He calmly touched the ball into the net, which Rivera blocked out. Just after the referee blew the whistle, Vasquez hit his rebound into the back of the net, but it was too late.
After the red card, Madera South was awarded a free kick. David Salas knocked it into the right side of the net for the goal.
Ten minutes later, the Stallions got the ball in the front. Christian Meza got it the ball to the other side of the net and Diaz touched it in for the second goal of the match.
With nine minutes left in the half, Diaz got the ball on the left and launched a high ball across the face of the goal. Vasquez dove in and put his head on the ball and sent it into the back of the net for a 3-0 lead at the half.
In the second half, the Stallions poured it on. Not only did the Stallions’ defense hold the Hawks to just five shots all game, they poured in nine more in the second half, capitalizing on four of them.
Daniel Maciel, Raul Arzola, Javier Buenrostro and Adrian Velasquez added to the Stallions’ lead in the second half. Buenrostro, Meza and Maciel, twice, recorded assists for the 7-0 victory.
