Bruin boys varsity soccer enjoyed their second straight home game Tuesday afternoon, hosting the 1-1-1 Lost River Raiders team that made the over 4 hour trip to the coast to challenge head coach John Silviera’s 3-1 Bruins.
A physical Raider team took the field and attempted to control the Bruin offense by aggressively challenging every possession, creating individual battles through out midfield and their defensive back line.
This created a lot of loose ball opportunities as both teams tested the others off-side trap, a battle the Bruins would win first, as sophomore forward, #14, Sebastian Olvera-Salazar broke down the Raider defense on a break away and pushed the ball past the Lost River keeper scoring the first goal of the game before the 15:00 minute mark to take a 1-0 lead.
However, the Raiders did challenge the Bruin defense on multiple occasions in the first half of play, creating scoring opportunities in front of the Bruin goal that the Bruin backline would clear away to take a 1-0 lead into the halftime break.
In the second half of play, the Bruins made adjustments to control midfield play, getting rid of the ball quickly to limit individual aggressive Raider attacks and moving the ball quickly into scoring position.
But the second half turned into a defensive contest, that the Bruins would dominate, clearing the few Lost River attacks that posed a threat, and keeping the majority of play in the Raider’s half of the field.
The Bruin offense broke down the Raider defense deep in front of their goal many times, but failed to put the ball in the net, and riding the Sebastian Olvera-Salazar goal early in the first half to secure the 1-0 win.
The Bruin boys will be home again next week, Tuesday, October 21st, taking on the 4-1 North Valley Knights, coming off a loss to St. Mary’s, with kick-off scheduled for 3:00pm.
