LYNN — The Tech boys soccer team finally returned to Manning Field Monday night to kick off its season, but unfortunately the result was not what the Tigers were hoping for.
A four-goal second half was a killer, as Tech lost to Commonwealth Athletic Conference foe Northeast 5-1.
“Honestly, I think our team gave up in the second half,” Tech coach Eric Moreno Sr. said. “They came out and they thought they were just going to play one half. That’s exactly what happened.”
That second half was a flip of the first, where Tech looked like the more explosive team and had plenty of scoring chances. But the Tigers couldn’t capitalize, and it was all downhill from there.
“If we were to take advantage of those opportunities in the first half, we would have won this game,” Moreno said. “But we gave them a little too much. We missed free kicks that we had and everything else.”
Eighth grader Alexander Pojoy scored the lone goal for Tech in his high school debut.
“I picked Alex to be on the team because I have a couple eighth graders who look like really good players and he’s one of them,” Moreno said. “He’s a defender, but I put him in the middle (Monday) as a center defender. He saw an opportunity and he scored.”
Another pair of eighth graders, William Martinez (first half) and Pedro Bamanca (second half) split time in net. Both made some key saves, but there’s plenty of room for improvement on the back end as a whole.
“I felt the goalie was out too much and the defense wasn’t there,” Moreno said. “Some of the defenders were playing undisciplined. They were too far up and that made a difference. There were some offsides and fouls that weren’t called, but I understand it’s hard for everyone to jump back into the sport.”
The Tigers jumped out to a solid start in the first half, forcing a few scoring opportunities — including a corner kick that Jason Robles just missed a chance to bury.
A little over 15 minutes into the first half, Tech had one of it’s best chances of the night. Erikson Licardie ripped an open shot in front of the Northeast goal, but goalkeeper PJ Mundis got a fingertip on it and the ball deflected upwards off the crossbar.
The missed opportunities came back to haunt Tech when a bad bounce out front landed right on the foot of Moises Flores and he scored to put Northeast ahead 1-0 before the half.
Then, the second half was all Northeast. The Golden Knights had scoring chance after scoring chance and scored a pair of quick goals to go up 3-0.
Pojoy stopped the bleeding a bit with a nice steal that set up his goal midway through the half, but it didn’t give Tech much momentum.
The Tigers just couldn’t keep pace with Northeast and the Golden Knights added another pair of goals throughout the final minutes to cap off the 5-1 win.
“We practiced for two weeks and we were able to practice indoors,” Moreno said. “It’s a big difference practicing indoors and then coming outdoors because we didn’t really get to do shooting or running the whole 100 yards. That delayed us a little bit. We are a team that needs to practice shots and make those long run. I think running in a gym, which is smaller, makes it harder.”
The Tigers (0-1) will have to tweak some things fast with a quick turnaround before another game against Northeast Wednesday (4) on the road.
“I got to see the whole team play (Monday),” Moreno said. “I put every player that I have on the roster in. Players that played off position, that’s something we have to adjust to. Some guys say they’re midfielders but they’re really not. I got to see everybody and where we need to adjust the team based on that.”
