Varsity and JV soccer teams played against Pembroke Hill High School on Aug. 30. After a 6-1 win last season against Pembroke, the Owls were looking to start their quest for a second state championship on Friday when they took on the Raiders.
Junior Varsity took the field first at 5 p.m., and they made their presence felt early.
The team dominated possession early, with a lot of ball movement the owls tried to spread out the defense.
Pembroke started to grow into the game, however, with the raiders starting to take possession though in the middle stages of the first half, The two teams had each other guessing throughout the first half.
With both teams fighting for possession, no real chances were made and the first half ended 0-0.
When the team took the field after the half, they wasted no time getting going. Within 10 minutes of the half starting, junior Axel Torres got past a Pembroke defender and slotted a goal past the keeper with 26 minutes remaining. Junior Luke Daniher was credited with an assist.
The Owls stayed on the attack when Torres hit a cross sharply to get his second goal of the match. The assist was made by sophomore Drake Thomas.
With the Owls having a 2-0 lead, they were careful to not give Pembroke any reason to have hope. This included Sophomore Tyler Garey committed a hard foul that got him a yellow card.
With time winding down, sophomore Levi Steide made a move past the defender and put the ball past the Pembroke keeper, making the score 3-0 for Olathe West.
And that’s how the score stayed, the Junior Varsity Owls start their season 1-0 and look to advance to 2-0 when they take on Northeast High School on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 5 p.m.
Varsity then started at 7 p.m., and the game started just like the Junior Varsity game. Both teams were battling for possession early on with a couple of shots. Junior Landon Tuala was getting it going early, with some shots missing the mark.
The game was turned on its head when West had a free kick in Pembroke’s half that didn’t quite make it to its target.When an errant pass followed, Pembroke Hill took full advantage of the Owls’ mistake. The Raiders found a hole in the Owl back line and chipped a shot over goalkeeper Brayden Walker to make it 1-0. With that goal, the Raiders were in the driver’s seat with 22 minutes left in the first half.
Many teams would have been discouraged by an early goal, but not the Owls. The Owls took advantage of a mistake by a raider midfielder and the ball fell to Miguel Romero. With a swift move around a defender, the junior slotted the ball into the net to make the game 1-1 just minutes after Pembroke took the lead.
For the rest of the first half, the teams were both battling for possession. With all of the passing in the midfield, the clock continued to wind down. With 12 minutes left, the Raiders kicked a long pass that connected with a Pembroke forward.
Unfortunately for Olathe West, Brayden Walker was caught off his line and the ball trickled into the net. It seemed like a nightmare for the Owls, but the sideline referee raised his flag indicating that the goal was disallowed for offside. At halftime, the score was knotted up at 1-1.
The Owls started the second half on the offensive, trying to use their speed and short passes to confuse Pembroke Hill. Each time they were in their opponent’s half, one of the passes seemed always to find the foot of a Pembroke defender.
Finally, with 30 minutes left, West found a lifeline. A shot from junior Cristiano Palacios hit the arm of a defender, and the referee called a penalty kick. With this kick, it would have given the Owls the lead for the first time all night. The penalty kick just missed the target, and West needed to keep searching for the winning goal
Both teams were careful not to make any mistakes in the second half. This limited the chances between both teams. Palacios had a shot with 25 minutes to go that went right into the Pembroke keeper’s hands.
Junior Brayden Walker made a few saves down the stretch, but the attack couldn’t find a goal, so the game headed to overtime with the score tied 1-1.
Olathe West started the half by using the quick and short passing style that they used for most of the game. Eventually, the ball fell to junior Cesar Franco, but the shot rolled wide left. After a couple of free kicks that couldn’t find the target for both teams, the first overtime had passed. The score was still 1-1.
The second half was more of the same for both teams, but there were a few scares for both sides. With eight minutes left, a deep pass by the Raiders caught Walker out of position, but it was handled by the rest of the back line of the Owls.
In the last minute, Olathe West had a corner that could have spelled disaster for Pembroke Hill. A missed shot by Franco meant that the game had to go to a penalty kick shootout.
West kicked first in the shootout, with Miguel Romero first up. The junior goalscorer from the first half sent the keeper the wrong way and scored to put West ahead 1-0 in the shootout.
Pembroke was up next to kick. Their taker sent the ball towards the lower left of the goal where it was met by Walker, giving the Owls a 1-goal advantage.
The next three goals by senior Marco Bermudez, Cristiano Palacios, and Cesar Franco were all matched with goals by the Pembroke Hill shooters. With the score at 4-3 in the shootout sophomore Zach Estrada stepped up to attempt to score the match-winner.
The sophomore stepped up, placed the ball down, and looked at the goal. Estrada shot it on the ground towards the lower right corner of the goal. Just like the four penalties by West before it, there was no keeper to stop the shot. Estrada’s strike moved the team to 1-0 on the season in a narrow win over Pembroke Hill by a score of 2-1.
The Owls look to stay undefeated when they take on the Northeast High School on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. at CBAC.
