JV Picks up 7-5 win versus Marshfield

Sept. 23, 2021 – The Siuslaw Viking soccer team opened Sky-Em League play last week and lost two games to Marist and Marshfield.

On Sept. 20, the first night of league play for Siuslaw, the Vikings traveled to Eugene and fell 9-1 to Marist.

After falling behind 0-3 to the Spartans, senior Jason Garcia was fouled. He was granted a free kick and, remarkably, scored from 40 feet out. The ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced straight down into the goal.

Coach Londi Tomaro said, “We gained some momentum from that goal, but unfortunately did not score on any of our attempts.”

Though the final result wasn’t what the Vikings had hoped, Tomaro was pleased by the 20 saves made by Siuslaw goaltenders.

Then, on Sept. 22, Marshfield, from Coos Bay, came to town to face the Vikings.

“The varsity team played to a 2-8 loss against the Marshfield Pirates,” Tomaro said. “The team started to settle into the game and play a passing game. However, Marshfield got up by a few goals and we lost a bit of our focus.”

When that has happened for Siuslaw, the tendency of the midfield players is to drop back to help the defense.

“But this leaves the opposing midfield players unmarked in the middle of the field and creates more need for defense, because attacks are allowed to build toward the goal with little resistance,” Tomaro continued.

In the past few games, the Viks’ defense has struggled with keeping the attack away from the goal, the coach said. The hope is to review the game footage to find next things to work on.

In the first half, freshman Chuck Nelson scored his first varsity goal on the throw in from Garcia. Garcia scored the Vikings lone goal in the second half.

“We took very few shots in the first half,” Tomaro said. “We had more in the second half, but most of them went wide or high. Senior Kayden Lane started in the goal but left the game with an injury after a collision in the box; he made seven saves and allowed five goals. Sophomore Derrick Vanduch finished out the game; he made four saves and allowed three goals.”

While the game was not as close as Siuslaw hoped, “before the game, I told the team that I wanted us to score more than one goal and that I did not want the game to end because of the 8 goal score differential,” Tomaro said. “We accomplished both of those things, so we are progressing, albeit slowly.”

The future of the Siuslaw soccer program, in only its second year of varsity play, looks bright, as the junior varsity team split its first two Sky-Em League matches.

The JV lost 5-1 on Sept. 20 to Marist. Freshman Nicholas May scored the lone goal for the Vikings.

On Sept. 22, Siuslaw JV played Marshfield and won 7-5. After going down 2-3 at the half, the Vikings stormed back and scored 5 goals on the Pirates in the second half. Goal scorers were: Sophomores Eli Tattershall (3), Ethan Jagoe (2) and Bryan Santos (1). Freshmen Sawyer Larson had 8 saves and Nicholas May also scored a goal for Siuslaw.

The Vikings play next Monday, Sept. 27, at Junction City. JV plays at 4:30 p.m. and varsity at 6:30 p.m.