Lion's Beat Duluth
Lady Lions prevail again over Duluth in PK's
Boy's Win 4-1
April 10, 2012: In more tough Region VII action, the Lions needed to beat the Wildcats to keep pace - they did just that. The Lady Lions are vying for the Region VII crown, while the boy's team is pushing hard to capture a spot in the playoffs.
"We played much better this evening," said Men's Varsity Coach Ryan Sutton. "Our guys played together and moved the ball nicely. Duluth is a quality program with a great coach. The beat region leading Mill Creek earlier in the year. We really needed to come out and get a decisive win, and we did that."
After Duluth got on the board 3/4 of the way through the first half, the Lion's came to life. "That goal woke us up," stated Sutton. "Defensively we started functioning together, and offensively we new we had to push forward." It was sophomore Daniel Rodriquez whose strong run down the left side of the field ignited the turn around and sent the Lions into half time with high spirits and a tie score. He did some great work in the corner and played a brilliant cross into the box for streaking forward Jeremy Rector who was able to one-time the ball into the net to tie the score with 3-minutes to go in the first half.
The second half was all Lions. Aggressive from the whistle, the Lions pressed forward with passion. Hard work on the left side of the midfield by Kevin Zuluaga was the eventual difference maker in the match. Zuluaga stole an errant Duluth pass and went hard beating two defenders on the left sideline. His beautiful cross to the back post found senior right midfielder Taylor Williamson whose powerful header put the Lions on top for the first time in the match 2-1. As it turned out, that would be all they would need.
The Lions would put some distance between themselves and Duluth over the course of the next ten minutes scoring two additional times. The first came on a good through ball by freshman Ryan Fitton from his central midfield position. His pass was able to catch a Duluth defender going one way, while Rector was going the other way. "Jeremy's determination on that play was indicative of the entire team's play tonight. He fought off the defender, something you have to do to be competitive in this region," said Sutton. After battling through the defender, Rector was able to finish on the play over a charging Duluth keeper for the Lions third goal of the night.
The scoring was completed by senior Juan Hererra when he buried his free kick into the net from 25 yards out. "We work on that a little bit in practice, so it was nice to see the results of that work. Juan hit a great ball that the keeper really had no chance at. We are very pleased with a 4-1 win tonight and now we will get ready for Friday."
The Lady Lions escaped with their win over Duluth in PK’s. While the win might have been expected given the records of both teams, penalty kicks were not. The Lion defense kept them in this game to allow another win in kicks from the mark. In the last two games both opponents have been held scoreless by tenacious play from the PRHS back line and defensive pressure in the midfield.
Katey Lippitt, Kayla Thomas, Shelby Jennings, Graham Green, Katie Fitton, Phoebe Palmer, Esther Cano and Courtney Miller all kept stellar defensive pressure on the Wildcats. GK Cosette Morche was more than equal to the few shots that the Duluth girls placed on frame.
Heather Bowman and Macey Raines also contributed defensively when called upon. They kept the Wildcats from building attacks and kept them unorganized.
“We escaped,” was all coach Bill Holleman had to say after the contest.
The Lion’s efforts in the offensive third went missing. "We had a few good opportunities, but we just couldn't finish. We will need to see the field better, anticipating and leading players into scoring positions. That's our take away from this one," noted Holleman.
The good news is the Lions went to 10-4 on the season and 5-1 in region play.
A very important game against Mountain View this Friday night will assure at least a tie for the conference title if the Lions can prevail. The game is at Mountain View. The girls have the early contest at 5:30 p.m., and the boy's kick it into gear at 7:30 p.m. Be There!
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