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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Wyatt Davis and Junior Criollo scored in the first half, and the Rochester boys soccer team held visiting North Miami without a shot on goal in the second half in earning a 2-1 win in their season opener at the Brent Blacketor Memorial Sports Complex Saturday.
Carlos Plascencia assisted on both goals.
The first came when Davis headed home a Plascencia corner kick with 30:21 left in the first half.
“No, never,” a smiling Davis said when asked if he and Plascencia practice corner kicks often. “It’s kinda all a timing thing. It wasn’t that pretty, but it got the job done.”
The Zebras made it 2-0 with 22:34 left when Plascencia fed a running Criollo a through ball down the middle of the pitch, and he finished into the left side of the goal.
North Miami’s Ming Lowry scored with 17:59 left in the half when he lofted a direct kick from short range over the Zebra wall.
Lowry was awarded the direct kick when the Rochester goalkeeper touched the ball with his hands after a pass back from one of his teammates.
North Miami never got another shot on goal again. Rochester relied on a four-man defense of Camdyn Furnivall, Grant Bailey, Jonas Kiser and Braden Harrington.
Aiden Harrington, Braden’s twin brother, is the Rochester goalkeeper.
“We had one kid who was out with COVID, which is Dakota Burton, who normally plays back on defense too,” Rochester coach Eric Backus said. “And Spencer (Backus) played back in the first half too. We kind of switched up our defense a little bit this year. We don’t have as much talent back on the defense, so we’ve had to go with the more basic 1-4. But it seemed to be pretty effective. Kiser is going to get there. He’s a good athlete. This is his first year playing soccer, so there’s little things he needs to learn and get better at.”
Coach Backus said his players need to work on their finishing. But the third-year coach added the players are “starting to finally get it.”
“I just challenged the boys after the game to put those shots we were taking in the goal,” coach Backus said. “Not kicking them right at the goalie. I think we had seven shots we kicked right at the goalie. I’ve got a lot of kids this year, and I kind of want them to get them experience. In tight games like this, it’s tough to get the inexperienced kids in there.
“But I thought we played well. I thought we communicated. The first half, we looked great possessing the ball and moving. And I don’t know what happened. We just lost track, and our brains went scatterbrained, and we just kicked the ball around instead of possessing.”
Davis said he enjoys his new position of striker, but he acknowledged the issue with shooting.
“We definitely need to work on finishing, especially the people that play offense primarily,” Davis said.
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