This past Thursday, the Leigh Longhorns continued their six-win streak with a 1-0 victory over the previously undefeated Mt. Pleasant Cardinals, with a goal midway through the second half.
“It’s never good to lose, but that being said, that’s soccer,” said Cardinals coach Nick Arellano. “You don’t put your chances away. One little mistake, and boom, you pay for it. It’s one game. It was bound to happen.”
Although the first half of the game didn’t produce any goals, Leigh scored in the 20th minute of the second half. With a pass from senior midfielder David Poole, senior forward Logan McNerney shot the ball powerfully towards the left side of the goal. Even though the Mt. Pleasant goalkeeper stopped the ball, he could not catch it, and the ball bounced back to McNerney with the right side of the goal open.
“I was just hoping the keeper wasn’t in the way,” said McNerney. “I saw an opening in the right side, so I took the shot.”
However, Arellano makes sure to not place the blame on their defense.
“That’s uncharacteristic for our goalkeeper. He doesn’t make those kind of mistakes,” said Arellano. “That said, he still could have made the mistake, and we still should have won. You can’t put anything on the defense. We just weren’t sharp up front.”
Although Leigh controlled the ball in the second half, Mt. Pleasant had most possession in the first half.
“We played poorly in the first half. We weren’t challenging headers, and we weren’t winning those 50/50 balls,” said Leigh coach Frank von Rassler. “Second half, we started stepping up, and that was the difference in the game. We pressed them, rather than them pressing us. We found out what they were doing, which is a long ball and a good flick. They have some really skilled players with a lot of speed. We made some adjustments, and we outplayed them.”
In the first 40 minutes, Mt. Pleasant had seven shots, while Leigh had four. In the second half, Mt. Pleasant had only five shots, and Leigh had nine.
“We’re not really a first-half team,” said McNerney. “We usually come off slow, but we pick up at the end. It was just a matter of time.”
However, other factors played into Mt. Pleasant’s loss. First of all, forward José Alavez injured his ankle in the last game, and the offense had trouble adjusting.
“We were a little unlucky. We lost José Alavez. He’s not playing today,” said Arellano. “I think, losing a key guy like that all of a sudden, we couldn’t figure out how to adjust. We didn’t have time to figure that out, because he got hurt last game.”
Furthermore, the constant rain made it harder for the players from both teams to keep control of the ball.
“I don’t think both teams played particularly well,” said von Rassler. “It doesn’t really work for these guys when you have rain like this. They become more sensitive.”
With the victory, Leigh (8-6-1 overall, 6-1-1 BVAL-MH) ties Mt. Pleasant (9-1-3, 6-1-1) for first place atop the BVAL Mount Hamilton "A" Division.
“We’re tied for first place with these guys,” said von Rassler. “If we win out the rest of our games, which I think we can do, we have a chance of at least being co-champions with Mt. Pleasant. If they tie or something happens along the way to one of us, only one will become champion. But Mt. Pleasant still has to face Santa Teresa, who is breathing down their necks. So are Willow Glen and Lincoln.”
Mt. Pleasant hosts Lincoln this Monday, while Leigh hosts Santa Teresa. Both matches kick off at 3:15 pm.
