Mission Valley Athletic League (MVAL) soccer season is just getting warmed up. For most teams in the league they are still in the single digit stage of games played.
On Jan. 8, James Logan and Irvington High Schools played their fourth league match against each other at the Logan Stadium.
From the first whistle Union City’s James Logan High School claimed dominance on the field which continued through the end of the match.
James Logan got two shots on goal in the first 20 minutes but missed the first, while the second shot was blocked by Irvington’s goalie.
The first goal of the match went into the left top corner of Irvington’s net at minute 20. Just six minutes later, the Colts’ Janessa Cervantez brought down the ball from a goal kick, then passed to a rightwing forward who completed a second goal.
Irvington goalie managed to stay on her toes with the pressure of consistently watching the offense, making three saves within 10 minutes.
Although the Logan Colts kept possession, they lost a number of play opportunities with their eagerness to get to the goal, getting numerous off-side calls.
However, they managed to have an impressive run by Cervantez who used her footwork skills to get around a defensive player, running the ball down from half field and getting a beautiful corner post shot into goal. At halftime Logan was up 5-0.
With a tough team to face, the Irvington Vikings came out of halftime with more aggregation. The Vikings began to use a crashout strategy. Three to four defensive players would jump to the ball whenever a Colt was in a goal zone. This managed to interrupt the Colts of several opportunities for a shot.
However, even with a new defensive strategy from Irvington, more goals were unavoidable especially when the last goal of the game came from a penalty kick.
The game ended in a tough loss for Irvington at 9-0. This keeps Logan’s girls’ soccer winning streak alive.
