During the dog’s first league soccer game against Rio Mesa, Buena had some incredible set plays, strong passes, intense aggression, and powerful shots, but even with their advantages, the fiery Spartans craved the win more.
While the Spartans kick off the first half, Buena swiftly gains possession and lead to collected passes from #27, senior Vincent Muller to #2, for a missed shot from the twenty-yard line.
“During the first quarter, our defense was pretty good and we were finding open players for nice passes and runs.” Vincent Muller said.
Lopez slips past the aggressive Spartan defense with all different jukes and fakes for the second shot of the game, which went just an inch too much towards the left. Which was an incredible scoring opportunity for Buena.
“I think we were passing better than we normally do for the most part.” Muller said.
It soon becomes apparent that the Spartans are struggling to take the Bulldogs continuous aggression and let Muller in for another shot from the ten-yard area, but luckily for Rio Mesa he misses.
“Our team just needs to make more runs and draw players out wide.” Muller said.
Continuing their luck Rio Mesa gets two back-to-back scoring opportunities, both inside the 30. While both their shots go over the goal, Buena kicks their aggression up even more.
Following these nerve-racking moments, Vincent Muller gets another gorgeous shot from the ten, sadly getting collected by Rio’s Goalkeeper. Buena goes at the Goalie again with another close shot that skims right over the crossbar.
Coming off a beautiful play for Buena, the Spartans have their third shot of the game. Buena keeper, #77 Nicolas Calles hurls over diving Spartans for his first save of the game.
Off another failed scoring attempt, Rio Mesa players start to get chirpy with Buena’s midfielders, and #22, sophomore Tyler Jaitt doesn’t let their attacks go unchallenged, overall drawing a yellow card for himself.
We did show good glimpses of good building up from the back, good overloading on the wings, and getting into the box but it’s just that overall that wasn’t our best play”
— #9 striker Nathan Lopez said.
Rio responds to the dogs with an assertive shot, but frustratingly for the Spartans #8, junior Graham Strople comes sliding in for a clearing kick getting a couple cleat marks from angry Spartans and the Rio Mesa Goalkeeper closes the half with a save.
To start the second half, there were many great passes from dog to dog. Because of those passes #4, junior Ivan Ramos gets a shot from the 30-yard area, one of Buena’s best scoring opportunities yet.
On the topic of scoring opportunities #13, forward Bryan Martinez collected a long pass from Ramos at the 30-yard line for an amazing shot that skimmed barely over the top crossbar. Martinez has multiple juking moves to get around defenders for yet another close shot.
“Overall, it’s not going to be about skill, especially at this level, it’s going to be about who wants it more, like which players are willing to put in the work in their certain areas to win,” Lopez said.
Close after our strong possessions, Rio Mesa gets a skipping goal off a corner kick. Not even five minutes after that, they got another goal.
So after aggressive attempts to get the game tied up, the Bulldogs come out with the 2-1 L against the Rio Mesa Spartans.
