A thrilling back-and-forth match last Friday night at Lobo Stadium between Lehman boys soccer and Austin High ended in disappointing fashion for the Lobos as the Maroons stole the 3-2 road win on a late goal in the final six minutes of the game.
“Just wasn’t good enough to get a win,” Lehman head coach Rene Medina said after the game of the Lobos’ performance.
Coming out of halftime trailing 2-1 to Austin, the Lobos equalized with a quick score in the first five minutes of the second half on a strike by sophomore Emilio Bartolo. With a crowded box, Bartolo controlled the ball off his chest and then nailed it into the right corner of the net.
“Good technical skill from him, settling the ball on a first touch that I believe was with his chest,” Medina said of Bartolo. “He kind of settled it and then slammed it in with his left, that’s his strong foot.”
After Bartolo’s goal, Lehman and Austin amped up their efforts in the final 35 minutes, but a goal on a counter attack by Maroons Ronaldo Garcia in the sixth minute gave Austin its third and final lead change of the game. Garcia earned the hat-trick, three total goals, with his game winning shot.
“That goal was on the whole team,” said Medina. “I know Marshal (Dukett) was in the goal, but that was on the whole team.”
In the first half Garcia got things going for the Maroons as he scored off a corner kick in the opening moments of the game. Medina sited a lack of focus from the Lobos that led to the early goal.
“They scored quick off a corner kick, we weren’t prepared for it,” Medina said. “We weren’t in a match focus to match that. But, then we come back and get (a goal), just some scrappy play right there in front of the goal by Isaac Salazar.”
Isaac Salazar, senior team captain for the Lobos, tied the game up at 1-1 a few minutes later on a physical play in the box.
“A couple of missed touches from their defenders and we were able to kind of make one or two passes,” Medina said. “He finishes I think with his left, which is good. He’s a guy that really likes it on his right, but he can finish with his left. So we put it on him and said, ‘hey be ready to use that left in game time’, and he did it.”
Sitting at 1-6-2 in District-25, with a 6-8-3 overall record, Lehman will be looking for its first win in over a month during its final seven-game stretch of the season. In order to get over the hump and earn a win Medina mentioned one thing that he would like to see out of the Lobos – consistency.
“We need consistency in training,” Medina said. “We need consistency in games. We need consistency in everything. It just boils down to consistency.”
Lehman’s next home match will be held at 7:45 p.m. Friday versus Westlake.
