Plata nets two goals, Vera scores first of season in 4-0 victory
over physical Salinas
GILROY – Keeping up with their No. 2 status in the section and undefeated run in league has gotten increasingly difficult for the Mustang kickers, who hosted Salinas on Monday night at Gilroy High School.
After a scoreless first half of intense, physical play against the upset-hungry Cowboys in the rain, Gilroy exploded for four unanswered goals in a 15-minute span to secure a 4-0 shutout victory.
“Teams come in knowing that we’re the No. 2 team in CCS and even top of the league at 5-0. They have nothing to lose, so why not go out and play a physical game,” Coach Armando Padilla said. “Maybe, they have the skinny on us. They know we’re more of a finesse team with speed and the only way to slow us down is to be physical. That’s just going to help us down the road.”
While Salinas became more and more focused on battering the Mustangs in the second half, Gilroy kept its cool, despite some hard fouls, and ran away with a sixth straight league victory, second over the Cowboys.
“I’m getting a little tired of at halftime losing my voice in order to motivate these guys,” Coach Brian Hall said. “Once we start playing our game, they can play as physical as they want. It’s just a matter of we’ve got to set the tone in the first half as opposed to waiting for the second half.”
The tone was set immediately after the break, as senior midfielder Jorge Plata scored on two blasts from the outside for a quick 2-0 advantage. On his first strike, the left-footed sniper rocketed a shot into the far corner of the net. The Salinas goalie just watched as the ball sailed past him, not even reacting until it was already in the net.
“The thing about Plata is he can score. He’s got a dangerous left foot. He can score from anywhere on the field,” Hall said. “He fooled the goalie from 30, 35 yards out. He just blasted it with his left foot. The keeper was frozen. I think he watched the manufacturer’s logo on the ball just go by him as the ball went into the net. It was a big shot.”
Plata’s second strike was from a bit closer. He took a low blast that zipped past the keeper again and into the far corner of the net to give the Mustangs their two-goal cushion.
“He’s lethal,” said Padilla of Plata. “When he makes good decisions, he can be lethal. The thing is making those good decisions. He definitely showed what he has potential of doing.”
The Mustangs were running on all cylinders and that meant a whole mess of trouble for the visiting Cowboys. Shortly after entering the game, junior reserve Joel Vera netted his first goal of the season off a rebound.
“It was a rebound after I think Jorge kicked it. We got the free kick. It went into the defense. I waited for it to come out and it did as I expected it and I took a shot off,” Vera said. “My first goal. (I’ve got to) take advantage of the playing time I get.”
Both Mustang coaches were glad to see another deserving player come off the bench and get involved in the action.
“That’s awesome,” Padilla said. “Joel deserves that goal. That guy is always working 100 percent in practice. He gets in there and got a goal.”
Still flying high in the second half, Gilroy capped off the night with senior striker Javier Hernandez finding the back of the net for a goal.
“(Salinas) got overpumped at halftime. They came out and started playing even harder than what they were playing (in the first half) and that just kind of played into our hands,” Hall said. “We moved the ball quickly and with their intensity, they overcommitted several times to the ball. We just kept playing and started knocking the ball around and playing our game. Our biggest fears for the rest of the season are injuries.”
Several garlic kickers absorbed hard, physical fouls during Monday’s contest, but they retaliated with goals and not words. There was only one minor altercation at the end of the game.
“We didn’t know that they were going to come out and be as physical as they were,” Padilla said. “You’ve got to worry about the retaliation like what happened here in the last few minutes of the game. You retaliate because you keep getting fouled and your first reaction is to protect yourself. That’s discipline, too.”
Getting the win was much more important to Gilroy, as was walking out of Mustang Stadium with the entire team intact.
“They were really aggressive out there. Like coach said in the meeting, ‘They had nothing to lose,'” Vera said. “They were out of the playoffs and we’re still in there so we wanted to control the game and not get hurt. It worked out.”
The Mustangs upped their overall record to 15-0-4 and 6-0 atop the Tri-County Athletic League, while the Cowboys dropped to 7-5-4 overall and 1-3-2 in league.
“Hopefully, we keep this going and go to the CCS Finals and take it, too. Next year, maybe do it again,” Vera said.
Up next, Gilroy will face rival Hollister on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Mustang Stadium. The Mustangs won the first game 3-2 at San Benito High.
