Boys Varsity Soccer vs Bishop Diego

The Cate boys varsity soccer team picked up a 4-1 win Tuesday afternoon in league play at Bishop Diego. It was an ominous start for the Rams, as the Cardinals caught them napping in the opening minute of play and took a 1-0 lead at the 45-second mark. Cate bounced back in the following minute when senior Buba Fofanah collected a punt from senior Devin Pai and equalized. Yes, at the end of TWO minutes of play, the score was 1-1. In the 12th minute, Fofanah found sophomore Daniel Boateng who pinged the bottom of the crossbar, only to have the ball bounce out to a waiting junior Will Deardorff who slipped it into an open net. Six minutes later, Fofanah picked up a loose ball in the Cardinal box, dribbled right and roofed a shot from a narrow-angle. Cate finished the scoring in the 59th minute when Fofanah once again collected a loose ball in the box and slotted it in the lower-left corner.

It was an unusual game. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen two goals scored so quickly at the start of a match. And while we should have been better prepared in the opening minute, we showed some gumption by not dwelling on our initial mistake and immediately drawing level”, said Coach Peter Mack. Bishop Diego played the ball forward often and well and got a number of scoring chances – most of them from long-range – but Devin Pai did a great job of shot-stopping. After a slow start, we got better as the game wore on and looked more and more comfortable playing through the middle of the field into the attacking third. We saw some good stuff to build on.

We head over to Laguna Blanca Thursday for another tough league test. Our record stands at 5-0-1 (2-0-1).