The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
Team captains Duane Baker and Nathan Mosqueda led Cabrillo boys’ soccer to a huge 2-1 win over Poly on Wednesday night.
The opening 40 minutes featured the Jaguars applying constant pressure on the Poly defense, but after five corner kicks and multiple opportunities Cabrillo couldn’t capitalize.
In the 21st minute, Poly’s Anthony Ruan found himself in the right place at the right time on a long pass as he scored to give the Jackrabbits a 1-0 lead at halftime.
“The game is sometimes a cruel game,” Cabrillo coach Patrick Noyes said. “With over 55 seasons in college and high school coaching… We have tons of games where you outshoot someone 22-1 and you lose 1-0 and to our credit today we didn’t let down mentally.”
In the second half, the Jaguars didn’t let their foot off the gas and after some back-and-forth with the Jackrabbits, Cabrillo finally broke through when Baker scored the equalizer in the 60th minute.
The Jaguars weren’t done, as they continued to pressure and on another corner kick Mosqueda scored the game-winning goal five minutes later.
“The first half we gave it our all and we were just unlikely,” Mosqueda said. “We didn’t give up and then we started off the same in the second half. We didn’t give up and we worked as a team.”
As time was winding down, Poly was able to set up more opportunities in the final minutes, but Cabrillo held off the furious push.
“We have to give credit to Cabrillo,” Poly coach Eric Leon said. “They came out and they were prepared. They were clearly the more aggressive team, clearly they were playing like underdogs and they kind of slapped us in the face.”
Cabrillo’s Marvin Amado had four saves.
