Struggles to find the net hindered the Lehman Lobos boys soccer team in a 3-0 district opening loss to the Vista Ridge Rangers Tuesday at Lobo Field.
Lehman started off the game very aggressively, with junior Edson Hernandez taking the first shot for the Lobos. While Vista Ridge’s offense controlled the field, Lehman senior goalkeeper Victor Torres kept the Rangers off the board early on.
But Vista Ridge broke through the stalemate 24 minutes into the match.
A Vista Ridge player drilled a shot from the left side of the box, a shot that found the top right corner and flew out of reach of Torres. The shot gave Vista Ridge a 1-0 lead and all the momentum. Ten minutes later, the Rangers found the back of the net again, and extended their lead to 2-0.
The second half was even closer than the first, as the two teams continuously exchanged attacks.
Torres kept the game close, recording several key saves, one of which came on a penalty kick.
Despite the fantastic play of Torres, Vista Ridge found the back of the net once more to put the game out of reach.
As a team, Lehman had eight total shots to Vista Ridge’s 12 shots. Torres finished with 7 saves in the match.
On offense, junior Eric Guadarrama took four total shots, two of which were on goal.
Junior Santos Hernandez had 2 shots of his own, one on goal. Both senior Ricardo Barrera and junior Alex Mantilla were given yellow cards in the game.
Head Coach Rene Medina stayed upbeat despite his team’s rough loss. Working on moving the ball and attacking the net will be the goals moving forward.
“Long season still, we just need to build on some things,” Medina said.
