Quick strikes finally connect for Cleveland in 3-1 3A soccer win over Orange
Slowed by a sloppy field and out of sync on offense, Cleveland’s soccer team was locked in a scoreless duel with Orange in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs on Wednesday night.
Then, in the blink of an eye late in the second half, the Rams were ahead 2-0 and on their way to a 3-1 victory.
Cleveland scored a pair of goals in a 20-second span in the 67th minute to break through against a scrappy Orange team.
“They did a great job with their offsides trap (defense),” Cleveland coach Nicholas Gruhn said. “It frustrated us early. They played really well. They were right there with us until we got those two quick goals. We were fortunate to get out of this one with a win.”
Cleveland (17-3-1), the fifth seed in the Eastern bracket and the regular-season champion of the Two Rivers 3A Conference, had its hands full with the 28th-seeded Panthers, the fourth-place team from the Big Eight Conference.
A couple of Rams goals were wiped out by offsides calls and the both teams were having trouble getting much offense going on the soggy turf. Players were slipping, the ball was wet and it was tough to mount much of an attack.
That is, until the lightning-quick Cleveland strikes in the second half.
The Rams’ first goal came with 13:35 left in the second half after Lee was fouled from behind in the box. Cleveland’s Martinez lined up for the penalty kick and calmly put the ball into the right corner of net for a 1-0 lead.
Seconds later Lee cut in front of an Orange defender to steal a pass and got behind the Panthers defense. He found himself one-on-one with the Orange keeper and put the ball in the back of the net for a 2-0 lead with 13:10 left in the game.
“For us, it’s just finding goals and they usually come in spurts like they did tonight,” Gruhn said. “Our defense played well. We were missing one of our best defenders with an injury but some other kids stepped up and played well.”
Martinez credited Lee with drawing the penalty on the first goal, giving him the opportunity to help the Rams take control.
“The extra effort by Hunter that gave us the penalty kick changed the game,” Martinez said. “When I made that penalty (kick), our intensity was up. And then 20 seconds later we scored another goal.”
After the penalty kick, Lee picked off a pass and took off on a breakaway. Then it was just a matter of beating the keeper.
“I noticed that they were playing a sloppy back,” Lee said. “I just took off, beat one guy and then just took the shot and it went in.”
Orange (10-10-2) pulled within 2-1 on a well-executed corner kick. Chandler Compton headed in the corner with four minutes left and the Panthers were within a goal.
That was as close as it would get. In the final seconds, Cleveland’s Reis Yu scored on an assist from Markel Miles to make it 3-1.
“A lot could have gone wrong tonight,” Gruhn said. “We had gotten a couple of goals that were called back because we were offsides. It was a wet sloppy night and the kids hadn’t really gone deep into the playoffs before. There was a touch of nerves there too. But we pulled it out.
“That’s the difference between last year and this year. We lost last year in a very similar game (a 1-0 loss to Northern Nash in the first round of the playoffs) … rain, very low scoring just like it was tonight. But we pulled this one out. We have been really strong in the last 20 minutes of our games this year. I’m proud of them.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Quick strikes finally connect for Cleveland in 3-1 3A soccer win over Orange."