Central's Edwin Alonso, right, jumps over an Owen defender Saturday.
Both teams were deadlocked until just more than 20 minutes left to play, when Central’s Bernardo Leandro found the back of the net to break the scoring drought.
Owen had several extremely close chances on goal shortly after, but the Central defense and goalie Jose Diaz held strong.
Then just 10 minutes after the first goal of the night, Central players put themselves in a great position to win, with Edwin Alonso sending home the Eagles’ second goal and putting Owen directly behind the eight ball.
Central picked up five yellow cards on the night. In contrast, the Golden Eagles received just six all season prior to Saturday’s game.
”It was ugly, but I’ll take it,” Central coach Blake Roth said afterwards.
Owen was a much larger and physical team than Central, who rely on speed and skill.
Roth said he was not surprised by Owen’s style of play and said some call it, “mountain ball.”
“This team counted on winning balls with their physicality,” he said. “We expected them to be physical, and we know no matter how much we hit the weight room we will never be the bigger team on the pitch and that’s fine. We would rather win the ball with touch and speed, and fortunately, we were able to do that tonight, not as well as we wanted to, but we’ll take it.”
Next, Central will face the winner of the Starmount-Jimmy C. Draughn matchup held last night with results not available before presstime. Should Starmount win, Central will host the Rams; should Draughn win, Central will be on the road.
The game is tentatively scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Post a Comment
