Friday, April 8 was an ideal day to be on the pitch playing a game of soccer at the Delridge Playfield as the WSHS varsity boys drew even against Eastside Catholic in a match that, on paper, had Eastside as the heavy favorite.

First half

Neither team was able to get much going in the first 30 minutes of the game with short stints of possession in the midfield for both squads.

The WSHS Wildcats depended heavily on the long ball in the first half but fell short of creating any solid chances as their strikers were consistently shut down by a smothering Eastside back line. Wildcat midfielders, such as Jonathan Delgado Quintana, displayed superior foot skills and were able to beat defenders one-on-one in the midfield, but the support was rarely there for anything but a long ball and a prayer.

The Wildcats took several shots from beyond the 18-yard line, testing Eastside’s goalkeeper who looked shaky at times but kept the ball out nonetheless.

Eastside did a better job developing plays in WSHS’s third of the field during the first half, sending many dangerous crosses into the danger zone where often unmarked Eastside forwards were unable to connect with the cross.

The first half ended scoreless.

Second half

At halftime WSHS head coach Tony Cornado gave his team one main piece of advice: “We need more passes, small ones.” Cornado had seen enough long ball in the first half and knew his team had to control the ball better in the second half to come away with a good result.

It only took two minutes for Eastside to find the net in the second half. The ball was played from the middle to an unmarked right outside midfielder who took the ball to foot near the 18-yard line, took an extra touch and confidently placed his shot to the low near post before Wildcat’s keeper Jamal Jeylani could get down on it.

Luckily, Cornado’s team took his advice to heart and the Wildcats responded by slowing the game down and controlling the ball much better, working the ball around in tight quarters and working the ball down the sidelines.

“I usually don’t like seeing long ball, just the boot and run boot ball,” Cornado said after the game. “But as soon as they started settling the ball down and doing a lot of short passes and connecting with each other things started coming together.”

WSHS started pressuring Eastside’s defense and maintaining possession in the offense third for long periods of time. Eastside’s frustration became apparent as their foul tally skyrocketed in response to the micro-keep-away sessions of the Wildcats.

Wildcat midfielder Quintana took the brunt of the fouls, going to ground several times – mostly justified with a few theatrics thrown in for good measure.

In the 64th minute Quintana was taken down yet again about 10 yards outside the 18-yard line, resulting in a set play. Eastside set up their wall and WSHS’s frontline held at the offside line, ready to crash on goal once the shot came in.

The shot made it over the wall with a medium pace and dropped down in time to stay on the left side of frame. Eastside’s keeper bobbled the shot and dropped it into Wildcat’s Abdirisak Ali Muse’s path. Muse took advantage, smashing a shot across the keeper into the upper right netting for the equalizer, making it 1-1.

“We were down 1-0 and I didn’t want to miss that goal cause that goal was going to tie us up,” Muse said after the game. “I was waiting for him to drop it down so if he did I could quickly get there. So when he did it I was quickly there and made the goal.”

Both sides had a few more good attempts on goal in the remaining 20 minutes, Eastside driving a shot off the right post and WSHS nearly getting a goal from 25 yards out into the upper left V of the goal (Eastside’s keeper did a good job adjusting and getting to the ball).

Postgame

The Wildcats celebrated their draw with Eastside heartily, considering it a win for all intensive purposes based on their underdog status and only having 11 players show up for the game (first year Coach Cornado, who is a WSHS alumni and played soccer for the school, said attendance has been a problem for the team this year).

“We didn’t have very many players so we needed to make them run around after us rather than the other way around,” Cornado said.

As the team packed up with smiles abounding Cornado told the team to expect large pizzas at Monday’s practice – a well-deserved thank you for a job well done.

The WSHS Wildcats are 1-7-1 (one win, seven losses, one draw) after Friday’s game.