Backus scores 4 goals, but Squires handle Zebras

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Spencer Backus

NORTH MANCHESTER — Rochester senior Layne Backus can score goals quickly, but it was the host Manchester boys soccer team who scored more in a 7-4 win at Good Fields Tuesday.

Though there were 11 combined goals, only three players scored them: Backus had all four goals for the Zebras, including two in an 11-second span in the first half, while Isaiah Acosta scored four goals and Wyatt Schroll added a hat trick for the Squires.

Manchester improved to 4-5 overall and 2-1 in the Three Rivers Conference. Rochester dropped to 2-5-1, 1-1.

“We had a lot of chances that didn’t go our way, and that’s the difference in the game,” Rochester coach Eric Backus said. “They had a couple really good … pass-throughs that missed the defender that we should have been in a good position. We told them at halftime they’re going to turn, and as soon as the midfielder turns, you’ve got to drop with the run, and we weren’t doing it. We were just watching them run right by us.”

Coach Backus described the teams as “pretty equal.” 

“You can’t win too many high school soccer matches if you’re giving up one-on-one runs with the goalie. We got a little hesitant at times. It’s the same thing. … We just go brain dead and give up goals in spurts. It’s not fun. It’s not fun watching because I know these kids are good. I know they understand what they’re supposed to do. We’re just not executing.”

Rochester led 3-2 at halftime, but a Manchester defensive save on a Kaison Williams shot into what appeared to be an empty net kept the deficit at one. Then, the swift Schroll scored on a run down the middle with 36:59 left to tie it, and Acosta scored twice on similar set pieces, taking corner kicks and rising up from the left side of the field and heading them inside the right post.

The first header put Manchester ahead for good at 4-3 with 27:20 left. The second came with 18:58 left to make it 5-3.

“We put Jo (Jonas Kiser, who stands over 6-0) front post, where they have to kick it over his head, and we put Grant Bailey back post, but he sucks in too much, and then the one time I moved him out to where he could come in and head it, the kid ran in front of him and put it in,” coach Backus said. “So just great balls in. They have attackers that attack in the box, and that’s what you’ve got to do. We had three times where we had great balls in the box where we had it to our feet and had nobody in front of us but the keeper, but we couldn’t seem to get a shot off. We need to be better at that type of stuff.”

Schroll scored on a penalty kick with 6:55 after being shoved down inside the 18 on a foul that resulted in a yellow card.

Acosta ran down a loose ball down the middle and scored with 3:16 left to make it 7-3.

Spencer Backus scored on a penalty kick with 1:35 left to complete the scoring after a Rochester player was fouled in the box.

Rochester’s next two games are against conference and sectional rivals Northwestern Thursday and Peru Monday. Northwestern was last year’s TRC co-champs and sectional champs, and Peru knocked Rochester out of last year’s sectional.

“The schedule’s not going to get any easier,” coach Backus said. “We got a lot of work to put in.”

Backus scored on a run down the middle with a finish that beat the keeper to his right with 4:38 left in the half. On the ensuing kick from midfield and before that goal had seemingly been celebrated, Backus outhustled a Manchester defender to the loose ball and beat the keeper again with 4:27 left.