The Dark Horses (7-1-1) soccer team continued their winning ways this past Monday, as Clinton defeated Hobbton (5-5) 1-0 in a road game.
Dark Horse Chris Zelaya scored the game-winner in the 21st minute, assisted by Alven Ramirez.
“It’s been 10 years since I’ve been down there to play Hobbton, so it was a good feeling to get down there and play in their stadium again,” Clinton head coach Brad Spell said via call-in. “I thought (Hobbton) coach Chris Vega did a fantastic job preparing for us. Hobbton was unbelievable, especially in goal; their goalkeeper played out of his mind yesterday. He made some fantastic saves. They came to play yesterday, and it was a good battle. We possessed the ball most of the game, but it was only a 1-0 game going into the last 10-15 minutes, and it was anybody’s game. Got to give a lot of credit to Hobbton for coming out and busting their tail.”
Spell credited the Hobbton defense for their efforts,too.
“They did a fantastic job; our guys didn’t capitalize on our opportunities,” he expressed. “Anytime you’re playing in a soccer match, anything can happen. Last night (Monday) was one of those situations.”
The goal scored by Zelaya seemed to pay off the efforts the Dark Horse coaching staff has made to try to get him more forward.
“Chris is one of our leaders and one of our captains of our team,” Spell said. “He was a starter on our state championship team as a sophomore, and as a senior now, I want him to take more initiative,e and I need him to shoot the soccer ball. Sometimes, he’s a little bit too unselfish. What I did last night was change the positions around, and I put him up top, so he can get some more shots on goal. Alvin Ramirez sent him a good pass across the face of the goal, and Chris took it one touch to his left foot and drilled it in the back corner.”
The win over Hobbton gave Clinton its seventh consecutive win, after starting the season out with a tie against Richlands and a close 4-3 loss to Newton-Conover earlier this year.
“If you can hang with these teams that we’ve played this year such as Wallace, James Kenan, C. B. Aycock, Richlands and Newton-Conover, and possibly sneak a win in there, you can beat anybody,” Spell explained. “When you’re ready to play, you’re ready to play for 80 minutes, but if you’re not, anybody can take you down. So playing those tough teams gets us ready for conference and hopefully gets us ready for a good playoff run.”
The Dark Horses play their second road game of a four-game road trip against Hoke County on Thursday, before they take on a Union (3-7) side that’s won their last three contest.
“This is the first time we’ve ever been to Hoke County to play as a soccer program,” Spell said. “So I’m kinda anxious to see what their field has. They’ve got a pretty good team from what I hear. I haven’t had a chance to watch them on film yet, but their record is pretty strong. I think they’re an 8A program, one of the bigger schools in the state, so it’d be a good opportunity for us to see what we do.”