The Sussex Tech varsity boys’ soccer team came back from a 3-1 deficit at the half to win last Tuesday’s game at Woodbridge, 6-5, in a back and forth contest. A Ravens’ goal on a corner with 15 minutes left in the match proved to be the difference.
“It’s always good to come into somebody else’s place and pull one out,” said Sussex Tech head coach Kyle Weed. “We had a little pep talk at half-time and they turned it up.”
The two teams took shots on goal before Sussex Tech’s Alex Garcia Velasquez scored off a feed from Anthony Andrews with 28:42 left in the opening half. Woodbridge answered a minute later when Woodbridge’s Wilmer Gonzalez-Deleon shot the ball off the top of the bar and it caromed off the goalkeeper and went into the goal to knot the score at 1-1 (27:36).
Raiders’ goalie Yandel Torres-Rodriguez came out of the goal and the ball was kicked toward goal with Torres-Rodriguez slapping the ball out of play for a Sussex Tech corner. Torres-Rodriguez made a save on a header by Sussex Tech’s Gary Barrios-Martin on the corner.
Woodbridge’s Kevin Gonzalez-Deleon connected for a goal on a penalty with 10:48 left in the half and Wilmer Gonzalez-Deleon followed a shot on a corner for a 3-1 Raiders’ lead (2:48). Torres-Rodriguez made a stop on a penalty kick by Sussex Tech’s Alexander Morales Rojas at the end of the first half.
Morales Rojas netted his second goal of the game to open the second half and move the Ravens within one (36:07). Garcia Velasquez went one on one with Torres-Rodriguez who made several saves and Andrews followed with a goal to make the score 3-3 with 31:28 to go in the game.
Garcia-Velasquez dribbled past the Woodbridge goalkeeper and fired the ball past the Raiders’ defenders and into the goal at 19:42 then scored a breakaway goal (18:49) for the hat trick and a 5-4 Sussex Tech lead. Less than 30 seconds later Woodbridge’s Jason Santos-Gonzalez netted a goal on a bicycle kick off a feed from Tyrese Mims to tie the score.
With 15 minutes remaining the Ravens’ Yahir Hernandez-Martinez sent the ball toward the goal on a corner and Brandon Camey-Arana knocked it in on a header for a 6-5 advantage.
Sussex Tech goalie Leonardo Crespo Roblero, who came on to start the second half, made a stop on a long kick by Woodbridge’s Andrew Amalfitano with under three minutes left before turning back a penalty kick by Kevin Gonzalez-Deleon. The Raiders had a late game corner but it was cleared and the Ravens hung on for the win.
“These boys don’t quit. They work hard all the way through to the final whistle,” Weed said of his team.
Garcia Velasquez led Sussex Tech with three goals and one assist, Anthony Andrews had a goal and an assist, Morales Rojas and Camey-Arana each tallied one goal, Hernandez-Martinez dished out a pair of assists; Kleison Rivera-Perez and Christopher Gordillo-Perez added one assist apiece, and Esteban Gonzalez-Chan and Crespo Roblero recorded seven saves each.
Wilmer Gonzalez-Deleon netted three goals for the Raiders, Kevin Gonzalez-Deleon and Santos-Gonzalez each scored a goal, Mims dished out an assist, and Torres-Rodriguez added an assist and 11 saves.
