Joshua Yaro signs his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday at a school-wide assembly with head coach Peter Mack on the left and assistant coach Jim Kane on the right. (Benjamin Morris Photo)
On a day that Joshua Yaro signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer at Georgetown, the Cate senior showed why he’s a prized NCAA recruit by scoring two goals and assisting on another in a 4-2 victory for Cate over Thacher.
Yaro found Justin Kim for Cate’s first goal that gave the Rams a 1-0 lead in just the 8th minute. Geoffrey Acheampong made it 2-0 soon after with a crafty move to get open for a deadly 18-yard strike.
Thacher answered before halftime to halve the lead to 2-1.
The one-goal difference was short lived as Joel Serugo drew a penalty kick less than a minute into the second half. Yaro converted to opportunity.
But the Toads capitalized themselves half-way through the final 40 minutes. Again Thacher was within one goal.
Yaro’s second didn’t come until the final minutes.
“Despite giving up two goals, we played wonderful soccer,” reported Cate head coach Peter Mack. “Our passing combinations and ball movement kept Thacher on their heels all game and allowed us to control the pace of the game. We lost focus a few times and weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be in defending the middle of field, and that really hurt the bottom line. But it’s hard to argue with how we responded to a couple of significant setbacks. We worked hard and played creative, selfless soccer. We stuck to what we do well and it paid off.”
Cate (12-2-1, 9-0) has one more Condor League game remaining before CIF begins. The Rams play Dunn on Friday.
