The boys’ varsity soccer team lost a tough battle versus the Martha Layne Collins Titans by a score of 2-0 on the Crimsons’ senior night.
First Half
The Crimsons started with the ball at the beginning of the game and quickly got shots on goal, but the Titans’ goalie stayed strong and blocked each shot.
The officials called numerous offsides flags on each team in the start of the game, causing the flow of the game to be interrupted.
Collins used the choppiness of the game to their advantage, scoring the first goal with 28:54 left in the first half
Both Manual and Collins had multiple shots on goal during the first half, but each goalie held strong and blocked the shots.
The score remained 1-0 at the end of the first half going into the halftime senior night ceremony.
Halftime senior goodbye
The halftime senior farewell ceremony started with each of the senior walking with their family to the middle of the soccer game.
The seniors recognized during halftime were:
Fayha Ali (#3,12), Alfonso Cervera (#9, 12), Abhishek Gogi (#10, 12), Fernando Gomez (#14, 12), Myer Mercker (#13, 12), Reid Olash (#21, 12), Mahamud Osman (#72, 12), Armin Razavi (#6, 12), Ben Roussell (#75, 12) and Daniel Taylor (#8, 12).
When asked about the seniors playing their last few games, head coach Bob Ramsey said, “I think that overall a lot of them [the seniors] don’t get a lot of playing time, but they want to be apart of the team, and that is important to me that they are.”
Second Half
At the start of the second half, the Titans maintained possession still and kept the ball on the the Manual side of the field.
“We played alright, we played average, but we could’ve played better,” Olash said. “We have two or three players coming off of injuries and it’s kind of weird getting them back in rotation.
With a little over 20 minutes left in the game, the Titans scored their second and final goal of the game, making the score 2-0.
“Coming into the game I thought we prepared well,” Jamil Shaliha, head coach for the Titians said. “I think their attitude and effort was right there [in the game].”
Some players attributed the loss to Manual’s lack of possession, which allowed Collins to dictate the game.
“We need to improve on possession and keeping the ball for the most part, and being able to contain the ball and not letting them get through the middle.” Mercker said.
The Crimsons will play South Oldham at Manual Stadium on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
