Men’s soccer falls to Wakefield, travels to DA on Friday

_{Senior William Cardwell tries to recover the ball. Photo by Kalissa Everett}

On Monday night, the men’s soccer team suffered a 7-2 defeat against the Wakefield Wolverines. 

The Pirates debuted a couple of changes in this game including a new 4-3-3 formation, a big switch from their previous 3-4-3 format. 

To begin the game, senior forward Amir El-Tanany took a shot on goal within the first minute. However, the Wolverines responded immediately with a goal in the fourth minute off of a header. 

But the Pirates weren’t discouraged, Junior midfielder Liam Gergen delivered a through ball to senior forward Gustavo Lagos to continue the attack against the Wolverines, despite the effort Lagos could not put the ball in the back of the net.

The Pirates defense was put to the test as the Wolverines kept up the pressure with multiple shots on goal.

Down by three at the beginning of the second half, in the fifty-fifth minute Junior midfielder Angel Contreras and Lagos set up an own goal by Wakefield to put the Pirates on the scoreboard. 

Senior midfielder Isaac Arrowood missed the game due to a hamstring injury. In his absence, senior William Cardwell was active in the center midfield position. Cardwell had been playing as a center back in previous games, but head coach Alex Ramirez said before the game that Cardwell is more comfortable in the center midfield.

Both teams played an aggressive game, the Wolverines ended the game with 10 fouls, and the Pirates ended with 9. 

Despite the result, the team is eager to make improvements to their gameplay.

“What we’re going to try to focus on is correcting some of those defensive mistakes… hopefully two days of practice is going to help,” said assistant coach Sarah Holland (formerly Sarah Cade).

Senior captain John Feller believes that sustaining a positive attitude is key to the teams motivation.

“We’ve stayed positive, we’ve had a long string of really tough games and so staying together and staying connected and getting behind is how we prepare,” said Feller.

Riverside’s next game is at Durham Academy on Friday.