Raiders take five in a row

The Midway soccer team put their early-season undefeated record against South Johnston on Wednesday night, continuing nonconference play out on the soccer field. In a physical game littered with momentum swings, it was the Raiders that caught fire late and emerged with a 4-2 victory.

Each team had various opportunities throughout the first 10:00 but it was Midway that emerged with back-to-back shots. Both were turned aside but the sudden onslaught would pay off.

At the 29:37 mark, Alexander Reyes got the Raiders on the board. He cleaned up a failed clearance by the Trojans after a corner kick and floated the ball high above the goalkeeper. Unable to make contact, the ball dropped right into the seam.

As the half moved on, foul calls against Midway were stacking up…and noticeably going uncalled against South. One such occasion was when a Raider was taken down from behind going for a ball deep in the Trojans zone. Then, at the 16:25 mark, the Raiders were hit with a yellow card.

Despite the adversity, Midway extended their lead with 10:54 on the clock. Heinze Mondragon got open out front and fired a shot through to make it 2-0.

The Raiders just missed one more goal with 1:00 left on a PK, but the shot hit the crossbar and dropped in where the Trojans goalkeeper could clean it up. With that, the halftime score was 2-0 Midway.

In the second half, South Johnston created more opportunities for themselves as they maintained possession for much of the contest. At 25:35, the Trojans had a shot ricochet off the left goal post, keeping the lead at 2-0 Midway for the time being. The center ref, though, insisted on continuing to pick at the Raiders. With 23:25 left on the clock, South was handed a one-on-one penalty kick. The kick, attempted by the Trojans Sebastian Mendez, got by Midway goalkeeper Keller Godwin, making it 2-1 Raiders.

With 15:39 left on the clock, the Trojans tied it up and at the 14:50 mark prevented a big opportunity from Mondragon to reclaim the lead for Midway.

Then, South Johnston induced a self-inflicted wound in the form of a red card. Mendez, who was responsible for both Trojans’ goals, was hit with his second yellow card of the game, which is an automatic red card, causing him to be removed from the game and South being forced to finish a man down.

As a result, the Raiders capitalized. Around the 9:00 mark, Midway reclaimed the lead when Joshua Santillan cleaned up a shot by Abraham Florido on the right side, putting the ball in the net to make it 3-2.

Then with 4:42 left, the Raiders extended their lead when Nash Warren made a similar play, taking an assist from Mondragon after getting in deep and punching the ball in for the score to make it 4-2.

That’s where the game finished up as Midway improved to 5-0 on the season. That concluded play for the week and the Raiders will be back on the field on Monday, hosting Union, before traveling to South Johnston on Tuesday. Game times are set for 6 and 6:30 pm respectively.