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Beginning Three Rivers Conference play in the second game of the season against a Peru team that challenged for the conference title last year, the Manchester boys soccer team had a tall task ahead of them on Thursday. It took too long for the Squires to get going, allowing their opponent to capitalize early and often in what was a 5-1 win for the Tigers.
Peru began applying pressure to the home side from the opening whistle onwards, with a large chunk of early play coming from the Manchester side of the field. The back line for the Squires was up for the challenge though, and they were able to keep Peru out of the net for the first five minutes.
But eventually, the pressure would be too much. After winning a corner kick, the Tigers sent everyone forward on the cross into the box. It paid off, as in the scramble, the ball found its way into the back of the net amongst a sea of players. Six minutes in, the visitors led 1-0.
The Tigers didn’t let up after scoring the game’s opening goals., accumulating even more chances over the next few minutes. It didn’t take long before Oliver Rabe found some space near the net and unleashed a shot past the Squire keeper to double the lead.
Rabe wasn’t done. Less than a minute later, thanks to some good ball movement from his teammates, he found himself open near the net once again and quickly made it a brace, as well as a 3-0 game.
The first Squire opportunity of the game was a big one. Needing something big, Manchester was able to earn a penalty kick on its first real attack of the evening. Wyatt Schroll stepped forward to take it, went left as the goalie went right, and put his team on the board. It was the fourth goal in the first 15 minutes of play.
Afterwards though, things slowed down big time. Peru remained in control for most of the rest of the first half, but the Manchester defense was able to prevent the visitors from adding on to their lead. The next fifteen minutes went by with no changes on the scoreboard.
With a little under nine minutes to go in the opening half, Rabe scored his third goal of the night to make it 4-1. The Squires were almost able to add one last score in the final minutes on a fantastic lead pass by Carson McLain, but were denied.
Junior Isaiah Acosta (R) of Manchester out leaps Peru's Tobi Odubena for the ball during Thursday evening's match at Manchester...Nieter
In what had been an incredibly chippy game up to this point, tempers flared seven minutes into the second half, with a red card being assessed to each team after a scrum near the Peru goal. For the last 33 minutes of action, it would be 10 on 10.
The smaller numbers didn’t seem to phase the Tigers, as Rabe put in his fourth goal of the game minutes later. Schroll came awfully close to matching in on the other end not long afterwards, but his attempt was thwarted on a fantastic save by the Peru keeper.
The next chance belonged to the Squires as well, as a cross by Schroll found the head of Isaiah Acosta, who placed his shot just barely over the crossbar. With just under 30 minutes to play, Manchester was starting to find some consistency.
While the home side was still having a hard time finding the back of the net, they continued to settle in as the game continued, controlling the pace of play at a higher rate and winning the 50/50 balls they may not have in the first half. Unfortunately for them, it was too little too late, as the final score was well out of reach at this point.
Manchester (1-1, 0-1 TRC) is at the NorthWood Invite on Saturday.
