BY CRISTIAN SANDOVAL
CYPRESS CHRONICLE
The Chargers second draw of the season placed Cypress in third place of the Orange Empire Conference with a record of 4-1-2.
Cypress started out strong and wasted no time in creating their first chance of the game. With only a minute and half into the game, sophomore midfielder Alfonso Montano had the first shot of the game inside the box after a cross from the right side from freshmen midfielder, Julio Perez.
The chargers made their presence felt in the game and two minutes later, Cypress freshmen forward Daniel Klebau had a big opportunity to open up the scoreboard. Klebau made a run inside the box and dribbled his way past the goalkeeper by the penalty area. He was forced to take his shot with two defenders covering the goal and others approaching him, having his shot go directly past the post.
The chances didn’t stop there for the Chargers as they aggressively started to pressure the Cougars defense and began to recover the ball in the Canyons side of the field. That created another opportunity for Cypress sophomore midfielder, Nomar Ibarra as he recovered the ball by the 20 yard line blasted it to the goal, where the cougar’s freshmen goalkeeper Alexander Rivas managed to save Ibarra’s shot to maintain the game all leveled up.
Cypress’ hard work finally paid off during the 18th minute of the game, when Perez inside the box shot put the ball over the net after Klebau’s superb through ball from the 45 yard line putting the game 1-0 in favor of the Chargers.
Cypress had a very productive first half as they shot 10 times on goal, but only went into halftime leading the game 1-0.
“In the first half we could have scored at least two or three goals and we didn’t put them away,” said Cypress Head Coach Cristian Rus.
For the second half, the Cougars couldn’t have asked for a better start, as in the 51st minute Canyon’s freshman midfielder Guillermo Martinez made a tremendous run through the left side, dribbled the ball all the way inside the box and passed it to sophomore forward Dylan Sullivan, who was in charge of putting the ball behind the net, tying the game 1-1.
The Cougars continued their start to the second half and were close to taking the lead in the game in the 53rd minute after an inside the box shot by Sullivan who was denied by Cypress freshmen goalkeeper Eduardo Rivera after an extraordinary save with his left leg.
The game slowly shifted ways and Cypress began to take over the game and looked closer to scoring their second goal of the game.
Ibarra had back to back opportunities inside the box to take the lead in the 76th and 78th minute of the game and had both of his shots blocked by Rivas.
Finally in the 79th minute of the game, after an inside the box cross from Perez, Montano rose up and headed the ball behind the net giving the Chargers the lead momentarily.
With being down on the scoreboard, the Cougars went on the attack, and in the 81st minute of the game freshman midfielder Cesar Perez made a huge run through the right side and dribbled the ball to the inside of the box which required Rivera to step out of his box and assisted Martinez who was left alone inside the box and tied the game up.
After a very fought game between both sides, the game ended in a draw in which coach Rus felt his team deserved more and was not thrilled with the outcome of the game.
“Just disappointed with the result…we thought we were better than them…we’re back in the game with ten minutes left 2-1 and we made too many mistakes in the back,” said Rus.
