Boys Varsity Soccer vs Nordhoff

January 11, 2017

The Cate boys varsity soccer team opened Tri-Valley League play on Friday, January 6 with a 4-3 overtime loss to Nordhoff. The Rams dominated play early and scored in the sixth minute when captain Christian Herman ’17 took a pass from Juan Magalhaes ’17 and slotted it past the keeper to the far post. Shortly afterward, Nordhoff began to control the run of the play; their persistence paid off then they curled in a free kick in the 25th minute from about 20 yards out.

The score was knotted at the half, but Nordhoff came out of the break and immediately finished corner kicks in the 42nd and 44th minutes, putting the Rams in a 3-1 hole. That seemed to wake Cate up, because in the 48th minute, Harry Corman ’20 served a beautiful corner kick that Herman ’17 nodded into the back of the net. In the 74th minute, Juan Magalhães ’17 buried a penalty kick that Baker Fox ’19 had earned by getting fouled in the box. With the game tied at 3-3, the two teams headed to overtime where, just three minutes in, Cate’s own defender inadvertently deflected a Nordhoff cross into the Rams’ net.

“I was super encouraged by the way we started the game. But we didn’t play with sustained energy for fairly long portions of time and we paid the price for it,” said Cate Head Coach Pete Mack.

“I give our guys a ton of credit for battling back from two goals down in the second half to force overtime, but it took a lot of energy to do that and we just didn’t seem to have quite enough to complete the job. It was also a physical game and I think that took its toll as well,” Mack added.

The loss drops the Rams to 2-3-1 on the season and 0-1 in the Tri-Valley League heading into their next league contest, at Carpinteria High School on Wednesday, January 11.