Winning a high school boys soccer game sometimes comes down to nothing more than desire.
“And today Gahr wanted it more than we did,” Fountain Valley coach Jason Smith said. “We need to do better than this. This wasn’t a good game.”
Coming into this match, the Barons were giving up a goal per game on average. But Gahr had little trouble getting behind Fountain Valley’s back line on Friday at Marina High. And Juan Alberto’s last-second goal led the Gladiators to a 4-3 pool-play victory against Fountain Valley
The loss combined with a 2-2 draw with Anaheim earlier in the day eliminated the No. 4 Barons (5-2-3) from contention for the Marina Tournament championship, dropping Fountain Valley to the consolation bracket.
Fatigue was clearly a factor in this match, the second for the Barons in four hours. Gahr, on the other hand, was playing in its first game in the tournament.
The Barons only had 40 minutes off in between games before they had to get ready to face the Gladiators.
At times in the second half, Fountain Valley appeared to be a step behind Gahr, struggling to keep up on counterattacks.
But Smith didn’t want to blame the result solely on tired legs.
“We didn’t keep our shape and we let them get behind us,” Smith said. “That is what made us vulnerable. We were just sloppy today.”
Take what happened in the fourth minute for example when Armando Perez took a free kick for the Gladiators. Perez was just trying to play the ball into the box, but not one Fountain Valley player made a move, and the ball rolled right into the goal to give Gahr a 1-0 lead.
Nicolas Cardenas and Alex Ruiz scored within six minutes of each other to give Fountain Valley a 2-1 lead in the 21st minute. Ruiz’s second goal in the 53rd minute put the Barons up, 3-2.
“Our defense needs to get better,” Smith said.
