Playing on a pitch as slim as a malnourished pauper, the Gilroy
varsity boys soccer team pulled off a furious comeback to tie the
Salinas Cowboys 2-2 Thursday afternoon.
Playing on a pitch as slim as a malnourished pauper, the Gilroy varsity boys soccer team pulled off a furious comeback to tie the Salinas Cowboys 2-2 Thursday afternoon.
The game took place on the Cowboy’s football field, also known as “The Pit”, making the playing field far more compact than normal. The change in dimensions wasn’t in Gilroy’s favor.
“It’s difficult to beat Salinas considering how narrow the field is and our style is playing the ball wide,” Mustangs co-head coach Armando Padilla said. “In the end, when [playing the ball wide] didn’t work out for us, especially being down 1-0 and then being down 2-1, we were forced to play very direct with the ball.”
Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the visiting Mustangs were able to equalize for the first time through goal in the sixth minute of the second half. Senior sweeper Kevin Grove put a deep throw-in into the attacking area, before the ball was cleared off the goal line by a Salinas defender. Gilroy’s Oscar Zuniga then served ball into the box on a corner kick, finding GHS midfielder Randy Moya, who put a head on the ball, driving it down and away from the keeper.
And into the net.
The Mustangs allowed a “fluke goal” almost 10 minutes later, according to Padilla, when an indirect free kick took a quirky path, missing all but one player – a Salinas forward who barely put the top of his head on the ball before it went inside the post.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, and trailing by a goal, Gilroy changed its formation, putting Grove, Bruce Ocana and Jose Armando Hernandez up as forwards.
The tactic worked.
With five minutes remaining, Gilroy midfielder Andy Moya crossed the ball from the left side to Hernandez, who one-timed the ball to Grove. The sweeper was able to out-muscle two defenders for position, and while falling, Grove put a foot on the ball to beat the keeper to the near post.
“Kevin, his will to be a winner allowed him to take care of business and come through,” Padilla said.
It was Grove’s second goal in as many games. He scored the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over North Salinas on Tuesday.
While the Mustangs were happy to get the draw Thursday, they were also somewhat perturbed by their own inability to finish. The Mustangs had 18 shots on goal, 10 of which Padilla said “would have been easier to score than to miss.”
Gilroy is now 10-3-4 overall, 3-0-2 in the Tri-County Athletic League. Salinas is now 4-4-5 overall, 1-3-1 in the TCAL.
The Mustangs will have their toughest game in the TCAL Tuesday at 6 p.m., when they face Alisal, which is flawless in four league games to date.
