Yet, rather than picking up two wins late in the season, the Islanders fell short of their personal expectation as they played to ties against both the Tigers and Warhawks.
“It was a disappointing week, no other way to say it,” commented Head Coach Jeff Roe. “These games were there for the taking and played a bit flat and just didn’t take care of business against teams we know we should beat.”
In the week’s opening match against Escondido Charter, the Islanders’ backline, which had been playing well in recent weeks, took a step back by allowing three goals in the 3-3 tie.
In the 11th, one of Coronado’s center backs attempted to challenge a throw-in, leaving his man unmarked. After Escondido won the ball, no one on the backline picked up the unmarked man quick enough, which allowed him to make a run on goal, which he converted.
The Islanders would actually find themselves in a 2-0 hole at the half, but fortunately, in the second half, the Islanders would find their groove and tally three goals.
“At the half, we switched our formation to a 4-3-3; I think that helped. But what I really told them is that we cannot afford to lose this game, and we had to do everything we could do,” commented Roe.
To get the comeback started, Noah Santos would fire off an absolute firecracker into the corner of the net from 30 yards in the 52nd minute to make it a 2-1 game. Just five minutes later, Coronado would strike again, this time off a corner kick as Ryan Chalepas headed home just inside the far post to tie things at 2-2.
As I said at the top, there was ample frustration with the tie against Escondido Charter, but what may hurt or frustrate the Islanders the most when they look back at this game is that Coronado would actually hold a lead in the game’s waning moments.
In the 78th minute, Becket Herr made an excellent steal at midfield, broke down the near sideline, and played an excellent low runner to the middle of the box to Chalepas. The junior quickly peppered the pass past the goalie to collect his brace and give Coronado a 3-2 lead.
That goal, in the moment, felt like the game-winner. Yet, with just two minutes to play in stoppage time, Escondido Charter would find an equalizer that would cement the game at 3-3.
Following the madness of the 3-3 tie to Escondido, the Islanders played a much less exciting match against Madison, ending in a 0-0 tie. Normally, a tie in league is not the worst thing, but in this case, it did hurt the Islanders as it took away their ability to control their own destiny in their pursuit of a league title, as now they’ll need to beat Patrick Henry and get help to bring home a City Central League title.
“We had a game plan for how to beat Madison, and we just did not execute, and the disappointing part is we now know it’s a long-long shot to win a league title,” noted Roe.
Coronado will return to action this week for two City Centra... Click here to read full article
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