Caption: The Middle School Boys team listens to some final instructions from Coach José Adriano before the game begins. [by Nicholas Liu]
by Nicholas Liu
On September 3, the PACA Middle School teams faced the Chapel Trojans on their home pitch. The boys and girls teams played two tense and competitive matches. Despite strong effort from both teams, they fell short of their desired victory.
The girls played first and suffered a 5-2 defeat. Manuela Miglio, the girls captain, played a very important role during the game. Miglio was responsible for carrying the ball and passing it to the attackers.
She said that the team should be faster when they have the ball.
“We could have passed the ball faster, marked the opponents better so they couldn’t get past us and score, and run more,” said Miglio.
During the first half, the Chapel Trojans dominated the game. The girls were calm and patient when they had the ball. They managed to score three goals in the first half.
The beginning of the second half was not different. Chapel scored two more goals, to bring the score to 5-0 at approximately 15 minutes into the second half of the game.
After the fifth goal by the Trojans, Miglio gave her teammates a quick pep talk as they prepared for the next play. She explained that she told the girls to “wake up,” and that was when the energy among the Warrior team changed.
The Warriors started to take control of the game. Sarah Volkart scored for the Warriors, in a beautiful goal in the bottom left corner. Five minutes later, PACA managed a penalty.
Miglio stood up and kicked the penalty very well. Then, the Warriors had more chances to score, but they were not enough and stopped by the goalkeeper.
Davi Oliveira, who is the boys attacking midfielder and captain in his seventh grade year, shared his thoughts about the game.
“I think it was a very good game, most of the time we played very well, especially on the defense area and everyone who played gave all their effort. But unfortunately some little issues and errors in between ourselves led to our loss,” said Oliveira.
According to Oliveira, he was happy with his own personal performance on the field.
“I think I had a great individual performance scoring the goal for our team and some good passes,” Oliveira said. “In my opinion, my main job at the game was to pass the ball from the midfield, to the attack, and I think I did it very well.”
The boys were winning until the very last minute, but then conceded a late goal. This took the game to the penalty shootouts.
“[We had] a talk with the team and try to tell them the errors that we made so that they may recognize the issues and improve,” said Oliveira.
He plans to be a better captain for the next games while recognizing that being prepared for a game is more than just being physically and mentally prepared for a game. He sees a spiritual component that is also important to the game.
“Also encourage them and have a prayer time before the game to encourage and especially comfort some of the boys who get nervous,” said Oliveira about his plans for preparing the team for the next game.
The boys game ended 0-0 in the first half, in a very hard-fought battle. The Trojans had more ball possession, but the Warriors had more chances to score.
Early in the second half, eighth grader Daniel Pavanelo and seventh grader Davi Oliveira made a really impressive play and got a chance at a penalty kick. Oliveira stood up and took the ball for him. He shot the ball in the bottom left-corner to make it 1-0 to the Warriors.
The boys had control of the game, having a lot more chances to score, but couldn’t. Sometime later during the game, the Trojans kicked the ball for an attempted goal. Thomas Zhang sprinted forward, taking the ball away on top of the line.
This play made the team more confident to continue fighting and keep the resulting efforts in their favor.
When their game had reached 25 minutes of the second half, the referee gave three minutes of additional time. At minute 27:30, when the game was almost ending, Chapel’s number 10, Guga, shot the ball near the midfield line and the Warriors goalkeeper couldn’t reach the ball before it reached the back of the net. This brought the game to a disappointing tie match at the official ending time.
The penalties were a very tough part for the PACA Warriors. The first PACA player to attempt the penalty shot was Daniel Pavanelo. He shot it in the corner with a lot of strength but the goalkeeper jumped and caught the ball. PACA’s goalkeeper James Swisher faced the Chapel player who scored their first penalty against PACA.
Nicholas Sousa shot his penalty kick next and the ball hit the post. Then, if Chapel made the goal, they would win the match. Guga went on and scored a powerful shot into the top left corner.
Davi Oliveira said, “ One of the main things we have to improve for next games is our communication.”
He also mentioned that the team should be calmer when they have the ball.
“Another point we should improve is to be more calm,” said Oliveira, “especially with the ball, because we just kicked the ball and didn’t have patience to build a good play.”
Although the results were not positive, both coaches and players agreed that the game showed growth and provided lessons to the team.
