Noel Vera celebrated his first game at forward Monday by booting
the biggest goal of his career as Gilroy knocked off Central Coast
Section No. 2-ranked Alisal 1-0.
”
It’s the biggest win since I’ve been at Gilroy High,
”
Vera said.
”
We had a lot of chances. I had two or three chances that I
missed and I was trying to make up for those misses.
”
Noel Vera celebrated his first game at forward Monday by booting the biggest goal of his career as Gilroy knocked off Central Coast Section No. 2-ranked Alisal 1-0.
“It’s the biggest win since I’ve been at Gilroy High,” Vera said. “We had a lot of chances. I had two or three chances that I missed and I was trying to make up for those misses.”
The win left the Mustangs as the only unbeaten team in the Tri-County Athletic League at 3-0-3 and 8-2-4 overall. The Trojans are 3-1-2 in TCAL and 8-3-6 overall.
“It was one of the more dominating performances we’ve had as a team in my tenure at Gilroy,” GHS co-coach Brian Hall said. “It was a total team performance. Jose Armando Hernandez got his first start on defense, and he, Eric Miller and Kevin Grove did a phenomenal job of stopping their potent attack.”
Until Vera found the net, it was looking like another dominant effort for the Mustangs with nothing to show for it. Thirty-seven minutes into the game, Humberto Pineda took a throw-in and drilled a shot that clanged off the crossbar.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Randy Moya had a free kick from 25 yards. Moya, who scored on a similar kick against North Salinas, banged a shot that the Alisal goalie barely got his hands on but was able to deflect over the net.
Two minutes later, Jose “Tapon” Velasquez scored on a breakaway that was waved off when the referee whistled the Gilroy senior forward offsides.
“I thought it was another one of those days where we outshot and outplayed an opponent when the ball doesn’t go into the net,” Hall said. “We persevered. Randy Moya was strong at forward. A lot of the flow of the game went through him.”
With three minutes left in the game, Vera got the game-winner. Edgar Hernandez dribbled down the right flank, beat a defender and passed the ball into the box. The pass deflected off a defender to Vera at the 18. Vera used the crowd of Trojans’ defenders to shield the goalie and blasted his goal.
“The goalie didn’t see it coming,” Vera said. “I was able to use (Alisal defenders) as sort of a blur for the goalie. It was big for the whole team. We worked hard.”
Gilroy enjoyed a 7-3 advantage in shots on goal. Mustang keeper Jairo Rodriguez was under attack in the final minutes as the Trojans pulled everyone up to try and get the equalizer. After a mis-clearance, Alisal got a shot that was wide of the mark and the Mustangs had their biggest win of the season.
GHS opens second-half play in TCAL at 6pm Wednesday when it hosts twice-beaten Alvarez. The Eagles finished the first half at 2-2-2 in the league and are 7-2-4 overall. The teams tied 0-0 last month.
