By Francisco Avila
Juarez hoped to win this game and bring themselves back to winning ways, but Solorio produced a great performance as the hosts took down the visitors by a score of 4-0.
“Honestly, it was just building off of the previous games,” said Solorio head coach Oscar Ramirez following the team’s win.
“Helping the younger players develop and gain that confidence, just having that momentum to push forward into the next game, and getting into that hot streak before moving into the playoffs.”
The opening 40 minutes began very even for both sides, but as soon as forward Angel Rocha’s pass to forward Ivan Vera ended in a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute, it was a prelude to a Solorio goal fest in the first half.
It didn’t take much time, only five minutes, for Solorio to score again in the 16th minute courtesy of forward Rocha from defender Omar Campi and Rocha got his brace four minutes later in the 12th minute off an assist again from Campo to give Solorio a 3-0 lead.
However, Solorio wasn’t done; after goalkeeper David Salgado stopped a Juarez penalty, Solorio went on the counter and midfielder Junior Pineda produced a beautiful long pass to Jack Contreras who took two players down and scored a beautiful goal in the final minute of the half to make it 4-0 on the day and wrap up the game.
“Honestly, my teammate Junior, he gave me a nice assist, by a through ball,” said Contreras speaking on his goal.
“I saw the opportunity, I knew I lost the ball, but I pushed it back. And then I just took one kid and I saw the opportunity to shoot. It made me believe that I could do more than what I could do. It gave me more confidence that I could score more goals.”
Juarez head coach Julian Gomez spoke following the game on the loss and how the team can improve in this tougher conference they’re competing in this season.
“Right, I mean, from the get-go, July, I told the boys that we are entering a new conference, that it’s not going to be easy, and that they’re going to have to do their best,” said Gomez.
“I did tell them that on top of us playing in a hard conference, we usually have a hard time maintaining a solid team due to things that happen throughout the season, injuries and eligibility, academically, attendance-wise. But I think the boys, even though we’re not doing our best this season, they’re still playing with their heads held high. They understand that they’re in this conference for a reason, right? We’re in the top 8, 4 South, 4 North, and we just have to do our best to make a statement and prove that we’re meant to be here.”
