Down 2-0 at halftime, Lakewood (2-1) stormed back in the second half to defeat the Rosewood Eagles 3-2 in a comeback win at home Monday evening.
At the start of the game, the Leopards had opportunities, but nothing seemed to threaten the Eagles in terms of shots on target. Rosewood maintained possession in the midfield, with small bursts of runs to close out the first half.
The Leopards talked among themselves as a team during the halftime interval to discuss what they saw from the Eagles’ attack. When play resumed, they were eager to apply the changes that head coach Marco Perez urged from his team. Three minutes into the second half, freshman Anthoni Yanes pushed forward to create a chance, but his shot soared over the top of the goal.
Misfortune almost struck soon afterward.
One of the Lakewood defenders was called for a handball inside the penalty box, which resulted in a penalty shot for Rosewood. As the Eagles’ striker lined up his shot, only Leopard goalie Gerson Navas stood between him and the net to stop Rosewood from tripling its lead.
His opponent chose the left side of the goal and shot, but Navas guessed correctly, making the diving save to keep the ball out of the net before his defenders cleared it away. Navas yelled out multiple times, fired up about his save as his backline congratulated him.
Little did Navas know at the time that his save may have changed the trajectory of the game.
Immediately, the Lakewood attack got forward, as Brandon Martinez took a shot from distance, but it was off target. With 27 minutes left in the game, junior Anner Yanes took his chance at goal, closer than Martinez, but still off to the right. The Leopards began to build pressure as they won the battles for possession in the midfield area.
The Rosewood lid on top of the Leopards’ attack began to slip.
Off a defensive stop, the Eagles tried to push the ball up toward the midfield, but the Leopards poked the ball away. The ball rolled to Lakewood midfielder Yandel Salvador, who pushed the pace up the field. With a few teammates up front, Salvador took his own chance, with a shot that ripped past the Rosewood goalkeeper on his left to get the Leopards on the board.
“At first, I was looking at my striker,” Salvador said postgame about his goal. “I was planning to send in a through ball, but I saw that the keeper was near his left post and left it wide open, so I just let it go.”
Now down 2-1, Lakewood felt the momentum swing. The Eagles pushed forward with a chance of their own five minutes later, but Navas went to his left and made another save.
The ball was sent back into play from behind, as multiple Leopards surged forward to build on the possession. Things came to a halt when a Lakewood player was fouled outside Rosewood’s penalty area, which earned the Leopards a free kick.
Up stepped Martinez, who unleashed a deep strike that bent perfectly over the Rosewood goalie for the equalizer. In a span of only minutes, Lakewood had shell-shocked the Rosewood opposition, as multiple Eagles players began to debate defensive assignments when play resumed.
The game was only tied momentarily.
With the game reaching the later stages, the Leopards pushed down the far right side to create another chance. This time, the ball fell to the feet of Christofer Cortes, who had an opportunity to put something in the box for a teammate.
They say that fortune favors the bold.
Cortes, closely defended by a Rosewood opponent, shot the ball at a tough angle that forced the goalie to move out of his box. The risk that the Eagles goalkeeper took backfired, as Cortes’ shot looped over his head and into the top left corner of the net.
Lakewood had successfully taken the lead, with Cortes celebrating with his teammates after his goal.
Now tasked with defending what they fought for, the Leopards held off two more off-target attempts from Rosewood to ensure they walked away with the win.
“I think we did really well with the comeback,” Lakewood senior defender Jordy Cruz expressed postgame. “At first we started a little bad, but we started playing to the pressure, and we got the outcome we wanted. We had to fix a lot of things in the defense; we talked about it. We all huddled up and discussed the things that we were messing up on and tried to recover to get better.”
With the second victory of the season sealed away, the Leopards will travel to Lejeune High School today at 6 p.m. to take on the Devilpups.