Despite defeating the Monta Vista Matadors and the Gunn Titans in the first two games of the season, the Paly varsity boys’ soccer team ended its game against the Los Gatos Wildcats with a tie, 0-0, on Jan. 14 at Paly.
The Vikings were surprised by the Wildcats, who dominated during the second half of the game.
“We had control of the ball the entire first half and we weren’t ready for them to come out strong in the second half,” senior outside midfielder Alex Freeman said. “They weren’t strong at all in the first half, but they managed to get fired up for the second half and took us all by surprise.”
Junior left back Mark Raftrey, like Freeman, was disappointed by the overall results of the game.
“We controlled a lot of the game and we had a lot of chances to score, but we didn’t,” Raftrey said. “We need to not panic when we’re not playing well and know when to play.”
The Vikings kept possession of the ball for most of the first half. Despite this lead and many close goals, by the end of the first half, there were no goals either side of the field.
The Wildcats made a strong comeback in the second half, playing with stronger offense and making more shots at the goal. However, things got ugly on the field as fouls became more frequent. In the middle of the second half, senior forward Spencer Sims received a yellow card, suspending him from the game.
As the match continued, the Vikings came close to scoring many times, but Los Gatos thwarted the Vikings’ attempts. The same went for Los Gatos, as Paly senior goalkeeper Scott Alexander protected the post from Wildcat intruders.
With three minutes left in the game, the pressure was on to score, resulting in a disagreement between Raftrey and members from the opposing team. The referee settled the dispute by handing a yellow card to the Los Gatos player and a red card to Raftrey.
“The referee missed a call before, but he only saw mine,” Raftrey said. “I should’ve controlled myself better.”
A red card is a severe penalty, according to head coach Don Briggs, and is something that is not frequent in Paly soccer games. One red card suspends a player from a game, but two could have them out for the season.
“We can’t have any red cards,” Briggs said in response to Raftrey’s punishment.
Things slowed down afterwards before the game ended with a 0-0 tie.
Briggs and many players were disappointed with the outcome of the game, feeling that they could have taken the opportunities in the first half to score.
“They did everything but put the ball in the net,” Briggs said. “They had all the opportunities, but they never finished putting it in the net.”
Many things could be improved for the next game, according to Freeman, mainly switching the ball to the opposite side of the field where it can be open to other players and knowing how to handle the opponents.
The boys face off against the Los Altos Eagles at 3:30 p.m on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at Los Altos High School. The next home game will be against the Mountain View Spartans at 3:30 p.m on Thursday, Jan. 21.