Wildcats slip past Lakewood

It was an afternoon of conference soccer at Lakewood on Wednesday. Facing off against their long time rival, the Hobbton Wildcats, it was a close game turned south for the home-standing Leopards. While they managed to tie the game at one point, Lakewood just simply couldn’t keep pace falling, 6-2, as Hobbton celebrated another win.

The main culprit that led to the Leopards defeat was shot on goal attempts – an abundance to be exact. While this didn’t become a huge factor until late into the second period it’s what ultimately hurt them the most. With all the shot chances that Hobbton had it was only a matter of time before some started hitting the back net.

A lot of praise, however, has to be sung for Lakewood goalkeeper Cristian Rico. His performance was exceptional even if the final score doesn’t reflect that. While six goals eventually got past him, the way he defended the net throughout most of the game kept his team in a competitive match. With the amount of shots that came his way, if not for how well he played, them losing by mercy rule wouldn’t have been impossible.

Prior to the final outcome it was fairly close for a big majority of the game.

With all the excitement happening in the second period the first half flew buy rather uneventfully. Hobbton managed to get the lead when an early scramble around the goal ended with a Wildcats score. This happened during the opening minutes at 38:54, with the rest of the half being quiet and Hobbton leading 1-0 at the intermission.

The second half is where all the action was, though most of it came from the Wildcats. The Leopards, however, did strike first after halftime which tied the game up, 1-1. That goal came at 33:18 and David Hernandez would be the one to put it in. A stalemate came after that for about 10 minutes until 22:38 when the Wildcats found their second score thanks to Jared Sanchez. Less than five minutes later the lead would be pushed to 3-1 after Cris Gil found the net again for Hobbton at 19:52.

This was around the time Lakewood began to struggle with keeping the Wildcats from taking shot after shot attempt.

Thanks to the continued saves from Rico, and more than a few off the mark shots by Hobbton, the lead managed to stay only two goals away. With that the Leopards scratched away at the lead and managed to cut it down to one. Hernandez found his second goal of the night at 12:14, giving his team a fighting chance with plenty of time left to play.

Things wouldn’t turn around for the home team, though, as it was an all Hobbton affair from that moment on.

With the Cats still firing shots on the goal at will, an unanswered pair found their way in, compliments of Jose Rendon. Rendon’s first goal came immediately after the Leopards cut the lead to one, 11:19 was the timestamp, and his second goal wasn’t until the final moments of the match at 2:30.

By then the score was insurmountable sitting at 5-2, but in 25 seconds the Wildcats’ Charles Ibarra punched in their final goal making it 6-2 with 2:05 left, thus ending the game.

With this win Hobbton continues to roll this season, going to 6-1, while the Leopards struggle to find their first win continues. Both teams will hit the road in their next games as Lakewood is headed to Rosewood on Monday with the Wildcats traveling to Neuse Charter on Tuesday.