By Gisselle Washington | Big Stick Editor |
The varsity boys soccer team has finished pre-district play 7-1 as they prepare to take on district challengers at the end of the month.
Their season opener was the SAISD tournament over holiday break.
Climbing to first place within their pool, varsity boys soccer team was placed in the final championship bracket with three other teams. When up against Marshall High School in the final championship game, Riders pulled a victory with a score of 2-1 winning the SAISD Tournament on Jan. 2 through Jan. 4.
“Competing in the SAISD tournament was a fun experience and a good start to the season too,” forward striker Jose Moreno said. “It felt good advancing to the championship round because we had work hard.”
The SAISD tournament was held at the Sports Complex and Alamo Stadium. Each team played games with two 25 minute halves and a 10-minute halftime.
“Competing at the tournament was a good experience for me and my teammates because we learned more about each other and build more chemistry together in the field and that is really important,” defense player Jonathon Martinez said. “It felt overwhelming with emotion and amazing to be able to experience the moment of a lifetime.”
Riders competed in a pool with E.P. Austin, Taft, and Highlands. After winning the highest amount of points in their bracket, they battled Wagner in the semifinal, coming out on top to advance to the championship round.
“We came up with a lot of different challenges such as adversity from the other team scoring but we never give up and always determined as a whole team and we’re a unit when it came to goals in the back of the net,” Martinez said.
The Varsity Soccer team practices every morning at 7 a.m. to mentally focus and physically prepare for the upcoming games of the season.
“As a team, we were committed to practices and dedicating the time to get better,” Moreno said. “My hopes for the team is to win district and go into playoffs. My favorite part of soccer is to score goals as a team.”
