Fallon seniors honored before South Tahoe match

In their penultimate match of the regular season, the Greenwave boys’ soccer team came away with a 10-0 loss against the South Tahoe Vikings.

This was also the soccer team’s senior night match. Nick Kulick, as well as Chase and Nick Sanchez, were honored in a small ceremony before the match started.

Both teams came out strong and aggressive. Fallon’s boys had a tight defense in the first half, leading to constant pressure on the ball and keeping it from their goal. When it did get close, Fallon’s goalkeeper was on top of it, stopping the ball short of going in or intercepting it on the outskirts of the net. The South Tahoe offense was able to push through, though, getting three goals in.

Fallon’s offense was just as strong and got several shots on the Vikings’ goal, though they never managed to go in — in one play, the ball was on target but rebounded out off the corner of the net.

South Tahoe coach Edar Vazquez said it was a hard game for both teams. He felt the first 20 minutes were particularly intense and the match could have gone either way.

The match was also very physical with players on both sides hitting the ground and slamming into each other. Over the course of the game, a number of Fallon players took hard hits with at least one needing to be walked off the field to return in the second half. Late in the quarter, the Greenwave defense opened, allowing South Tahoe to bring in three more goals before the end of the first half.

Fallon coach Miguel Orduna felt the team got into their own heads. He said it can be hard to recover once the other team starts building up a lead, but it is part of the learning process they have to go through in building a strong team.

“We can’t just stop trying because we’re four goals down or one goal down,” he said. “But every team goes through these struggles and you have to deal with the punches right now, but we’re young and we’re just going to keep working.”

As the second half began, the Greenwave rallied and tightened up their defense to keep the Vikings back — during one play, the goalkeeper made an impressive save, diving on the ball inside the goal and stopping it short. The California team pushed hard, though, and fought for victory, as their offense broke through the home team’s defenders again to bring in four more goals. Their rough play had its consequences, though, and the referee yellow carded two South Tahoe players, removing them from the rest of the match.

“It’s one of those games where it can get to that point,” Vazquez said. “Whether because one of the players is not as technically skilled, and so they use force … You have to compensate somehow.”

While the match didn’t go as well as he had hoped, Orduna felt his whole team played to their best ability. Since it was senior night, he felt the team’s three seniors were playing especially hard.

Orduna said the graduating seniors will be a big loss to them for next year. However, he added it was only three players and the rest of the 16-man team showed lots of promise for growing into a great team.

The Greenwave had their final game of the regular season last night in Incline Village, against the Highlanders.

GIRLS SOCCER

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — The South Tahoe girls soccer team celebrated its senior class with laughter, tears and a victory under the lights Tuesday.

The Vikings beat Fallon 3-0 at Viking Stadium on Senior Night, delivering an emotional 3A Northern League win in their last home match of the season.

South Tahoe (13-5, 12-3 3A Northern) took the field for kickoff Tuesday night with nine outgoing players — seven seniors and two juniors graduating a year early. “These kids are competitors, and the minute they got their first couple touches it was on and it was game time,” Vikings Coach Mark Salmon said.

The Vikings battled emotions all night while delivering a comfortable victory. South Tahoe bookended the first half with goals and quickly added a third after halftime against Fallon (3-9-5, 3-8-4), who was eliminated from postseason contention.