Bryan Duenas and South Tahoe's Ethan Nelson race to take possession of the ball when it lands.
The Greenwave soccer team had its best match of the season Wednesday, giving a serious fight to the visiting South Tahoe Vikings.
While South Tahoe won, 8-3, the Fallon players were aggressive and made the Vikings work for the win.
The Vikings opened with a goal in the game’s first minute; the home team came back, though, keeping up pressure.
Fallon scored its first goal in the 34th minute, rocketing the ball past the Tahoe goalkeeper.
The rest of the half, however, went to the Vikings. Fallon kept up the pressure, making several shots on the goal, but Tahoe’s defense was strong and pushed them back. By the end of the half the score was 7-1.
After halftime, though, Fallon recovered, coming back with a force to press their attack. The ball rarely left the midfield or South Tahoe’s side and the first goal of the half went to Fallon. A second goal at 27:30 shortly followed as both teams gave everything they had. South Tahoe was still fighting with a physically bigger team, though, and slipped their only goal of the half past Caden Bowman at 13:56.
Fallon team captain Bryan Ugalde said they played a strong match, winning the second half. Fallon coach Nathan Toigo said his players were starting to really come together on passing the ball and moving together. He commended the Greenwave for holding on and playing toe to toe with a bigger, faster group of players.
“I think we held in there,” he said. “We didn’t give up and then we did really well in the second half.”
Toigo added the players were all over the place with several getting nice plays. The match’s goals were scored by Bryan Duenas, Cesar Molina and Adrian Martinez. The coach commended Duenas for his attacks and said he likes to see that with fast, nimble players.
Goalkeeper Cesar Molina also was solid in the Fallon goal, making several great saves against the Vikings. At halftime, Molina was brought out into the field, replaced by Bowman who was just as strong a keeper.
Ugalde noted they’re a small team, but growing constantly. He said they started from the bottom, but are moving up and coming together to play like a team.
Fallon plays in Incline Village on Saturday at 10 a.m. Toigo said they’re excited for the match; he added he doesn’t know much about them, but knows they’re lower in the division. Toigo and Ugalde expect it to be a good match.
“We play that way against Incline, we got it; we can do it,” Ugalde said. “They (Incline) should be ready, because we’re going to go out there and give them a game.”
