West Liberty High School boys soccer coach Walton Ponce admits he may be a little harsh, but said his team had a “pretty lethargic game” in their 7-0 victory over Marquette Catholic Friday night at Bellevue’s Felderman Park Trail.
“It was pretty balanced out in terms of scoring but we could have finished the game early with 10 goals,” Ponce said after his team’s fifth win in seven outings. “I know it may seem a bit harsh but realistically we were a bit off Friday night.”
The coach said the team’s “speed of play and the final pass in the attacking third was lacking consistency. I take it with a grain of salt and move on knowing it is still a W (win) at the end of the night.”
The team’s defense was tested in the normal sequence of play and the coach said the team nearly gave up goals on corner and free kicks, only to shut out Bellevue. “Overall, our back line was solid though along with our goalie (Ruben Meraz).”
The coach said the team will have to continue to work on “consistency in not giving away opportunities through the build up of our play in that back line which will make our actual defending much easier against the top tests we have left in the season.”
The coach said the team’s peak for the season is huge and has yet to be achieved but having a perfect record (4-0) against Class 1A schools proves his team can play with the best.
“We obviously want to compete against the teams in 2A and 3A and I enjoy those tests,” Ponce said. “We need to keep showing what we can do across the board with any team that we play against in order to get the opportunity that we want at the end of the season to compete for a state title.”
It didn’t take long for the Comets to take the lead in the game, Jahsiah Galvan scoring off a Juan Mateo assist to take an early lead with just over a minute gone in the game.
The team hosts Columbus this Thursday at Memorial Field beginning at 6:30 p.m. and proceeded by a girls varsity outing between the same teams that starts at 5 p.m. On Monday, May 3, the team hosts CCA (Cedar Christian Academy) of Cedar Rapids beginning at 5 p.m.. with a junior varsity game followed by the varsity game at approximately 6:30 p.m.