Carpinteria’s 3-1 Tri-Valley League-opening victory over Bishop Diego on Friday was mostly a 1-0 game in the Cardinals’ favor.
After a first-half goal from the Cardinals’ Jeff Mandrell gave the visiting rivals an initial advantage, the Warriors slowly built up the pressure, chipping away at the Bishop defense until finally breaking through with three goals in the final 15 minutes.
The Cardinals’ back-defensive line of Sam Verhasselt, Cody Yokubaitis, Thomas Rubio and David Pilkington – led by goalkeeper Garret Garcia – repelled the nearly constant Carpinteria attack for 65 minutes before giving up an undefendable score.
Finding a little open space straight out, Eduardo Contreras blasted a 25-yard heat-seeking missile that found its target in the upper left corner of the goal for the equalizer.
“We were playing pretty good in the first half, but we stepped it up in the second half and it worked out for us,” said the left-footed junior, who also assisted on the next goal.
Once the leak opened up, the flood followed quickly.
Less than three minutes later, Arturo Alvarez came through with the go-ahead score by getting his head on a Contreras centering-pass. Garcia was right there to challenge, but Alvarez’s redirect was on target.
Soon after, Alejandro Alvarez – Arturo’s younger brother – took advantage of momentum and delivered the finishing blow to make it 3-1 in the 75th minute.
“It’s tough to hold off a team like that for 80 minutes,” said Cardinals head coach Jesus Landeros, and commended Garcia for his work in goal despite the final result.
“At halftime we were up 1-0 but they could of easily been up 2-1. The difference in the game was his play. He had at least three outstanding saves,” continued Landeros, whose Cardinals are now 3-3-2 overall.
“I’m really proud of the way my guys played, we’ve grown as far as soccer is concerned.”
Carpinteria coach Daniel Torres thought Bishop did well, but has supreme confidence in his team’s ability.
“It could have easily been 1-0 in favor of them but I think the guys wanted it a little bit more in the second half,” he said as his team improves to 8-3 on the season.
“I didn’t want to lose against Bishop,” said an honest Arturo Alvarez.
(Photos taken by John Dvorak/PresidioPics. For prints, email [email protected])
