JUNIO LANG COMMANDS THE BALL AND SLIPS AROUND A VISITING DEFENDER.
(Photo by Lauren Cordova, Reporter Herald)
TV shifts into cruise control
All the indicators were there, but the result wasn’t living up.
Part of the problem is the nature of the sport itself. Soccer is simply a game where one team can look utterly dominant and the scoreboard won’t show it. Goals are hard to come by, even it a team does everything perfect up until the decisive moment.
Thompson Valley owned the ball, vastly controlled the number of chances on net and yet it was only a one-score contest at the break. For a club on the cusp of the playoff field, the Eagles couldn’t wait around.
They needed to convert.
“Everybody needed to focus up,” TVHS senior striker Justin Wiersema said. “We didn’t play our best first half ever, and we all knew it. We had to clamp it down.”
With new purpose, the Eagles snared firm command of the match, sprinting
past visiting Palmer Ridge with five goals in the second half for a 7-2 victory Wednesday at MVHS.
Five different players scored for Thompson Valley, however, it was the team’s leadership that made its impact felt in possibly their final game of the season. Wiersema charged forward with a pair of goals to grow his side’s advantage to 4-1.
Then fellow seniors (and infrequent scorers) Adrian Juarez and Aeneas DeLuca tacked on to leave no doubt.
“I told them if they even want a sniff at the playoffs, they need to go out and put the ball in the back of the net. Let’s do this together as a team,” coach Chase Hammen said. “They just started playing beautiful soccer. That’s what I envisioned at the beginning of the season, what I thought we could do. It was beautiful.”
ADRIAN JUAREZ HEADS THE BALL
AWAY FROM HIS OPPONENT.
(Photo by Lauren Cordova, Reporter Herald)
Thompson Valley (5-8-2) stormed out of the opening whistle with two quick goals, both off the foot of Spanish exchange student Pablo Cervantes, who notched his first less than 2 minutes into the match.
He again found netting little less than a minute later, an expertly taken strike on the volley on a pass from junior Logan Brian (who would score the Eagles’ seventh and final goal late). However, chances went begging the rest of the half for Thompson Valley as Palmer Ridge cut the gap to a lone score with 18 minutes remaining the first half after a clearance stared the counter.
Palmer Ridge threatened to equalize quickly in the second half, nailing the post flush, the closest the Bears would come to beating goalkeeper Damian Zhou.
Then it was the Eagles’ turn, and they didn’t miss.
“It feels great because we were all just clicking in the second half, making better passes, seeing the gaps and hitting them,” Wiersema said. “I thought we played 100 percent better in the second half.”
Thompson Valley’s postseason hopes are now up in the air, coming into the day ranked 30th in RPI for the 4A field, with 32 teams qualifying for the playoffs, but the Eagles’ spot still clouded by conference finishes and other factors outside of pure statistical rankings.
Hammen hopes his players get another shot on the pitch together because the Eagles are beginning to look like he’d always planned, starting with his two reliable forwards in Cervantes and Wiersema up top.
“The ball can go into those two guys and they can hold it and have others make runs into space. In the past it used to be, kick it over the top and hope Justin or somebody could finish,” Hammen said. “Finally, everybody was moving off the ball. It wasn’t just the Justin show. Everybody was a part of the show.”
With a bit of luck, the show will go on.