Weiser soccer beats Fruitland and Payette, ties Ontario

After a long week under a hot sun, the Weiser boys soccer team ended their three-game week with a 1-1 tie against the Ontario Tigers.
 All three games were played on the Wolverines’ home field last week. Tuesday saw them play against the Fruitland Grizzlies, where the boys pulled off a 3-1 win.
 The next game was against Payette on Thursday, and the Wolverines were able to dominate the play to a 5-0 win.
 The final game of the week was on Friday, and was a rematch against the Tigers. The match ended in a 1-1 tie, just like the previous game against Ontario.
 With four games under their belts, Weiser boys have an overall season score of 2-0-2, and a conference score of 2-0.
 Coach Kathy Bokides has been very proud of the team and recognizes what a tough week it was.
 “We’re tired,” she said. “I’m glad we have a weekend for their bodies to rest.”
 She’s also thankful for the size of the team. With a big roster, coaches can sub more and players can have a chance to rest.
 “We have three games next week, then three more games the week after, so it’s a lot,” she said. “We won’t have a chance to work on things and fix anything for two weeks now. So that’s why we use warm up times as a practice sometimes.”
Friday vs. Ontario, 1-1
 While Friday morning had a cooling storm come through the area, by the evening game against Ontario the temperatures were back up in the 90s.
 The game began with no one team controlling the ball more than the other. Both sides took several shots that were stopped by the goalies.
 At the 11-minute mark, a foul was called on Ontario. The ball was by the half-line and Marcos Tarelo took the kick for Weiser. He got the ball right in front of the Tiger goal and both the goalie and Nathan Turner jumped for the ball and knocked it to the side of the goal where Bryce Bake was able to get a touch on it and knocked it into the net for the first point of the game.
 Both sides had fouls called on them through the first half, but neither team was able to capitalize on any of the kicks resulting from the calls. Play continued until halftime, with neither side dominating control of the ball for any significant length of time. Shots made either went wide, or were stopped by the goalies.
 After half, play was again back and forth between the teams. At 13 minutes, Ontario’s Julian Tellez made a shot that hit the goal side post, causing the ball to bounce across the net then in. This evened the score to 1-1.
 Both teams battled for another goal, but between each team’s defense and goalies, nothing else went in.
 Wolverine defender Justin Estes received a yellow card, but Weiser goalie Gabe Rasmussen was able to save the shot Ontario attempted to make off the foul.
 About 26 minutes through the second half, an Ontario player went down with a cramp. The refs stopped time while he was being helped up, so both teams were able to get a water break.
 When play resumed the Tigers were given control of the ball, and play began to go back and forth again. During one Ontario push down the field, Weiser’s Bryan Valdivia received a yellow card after a foul. Ontario wasn’t able to make a shot off the resulting kick, and the teams battled over control of the ball again.
 With just 8 minutes left in the game, it looked like Ontario might get another point on the board. Intense play happened in front of the Weiser goal, with the Tigers battling to get the ball in the net and the Wolverines trying to clear the ball out. After a minute or so, with many close calls, Weiser was able to clear the ball away from the net and started a push back to the Ontario side of the field.
 Several more shots were taken by Weiser, but they either went over the net or were saved by Ontario’s goalie. Play ended with a tied score of 1-1.
 Bokides said she was happy with Friday’s game.
 “I think Weiser continues to play the best games against Ontario. We play up to their level,” she said.
 She felt that Weiser’s passing game keeps improving, but when they weren’t passing well is when Ontario was able to make their moves.
 “We didn’t make many mistakes, but when we did, that is when Ontario was able to capitalize,” Bokides said.
 “This week we really worked on ball touches, and ball control, and the kids really commented on how much just those two days of that really helped.”
Weiser vs. Payette, 5-0
 Weiser dominated in their first game of the season against the Payette Pirates last Thursday. The game ended with a score of 5-0.
 In the first minute of the match, the action was already down by Payette’s goal. Weiser’s Nathan Turner threw the ball in from the sidelines, where it was then kicked across the goal and accidently knocked into the Pirate’s net off the back of one of their own players.
 Control of the ball went back and forth after that. Both teams made shots that were either off their mark, or stopped by the goalies.
 At 20 minutes in, the referees gave the team a water break. Play continued for another 13 minutes afterward, until Wolverine Edgar Ayala was able to make a shot that went past Payette’s goalie.
 Just one minute later, Pedro Ixta got his foot on the ball and shot it past the Pirates and into the net for Weiser’s third goal of the first half.
 At 8 minutes into the second half, Weiser’s Cris Cornejo received a yellow card after a play that ended up taking the Pirate’s goalie down.
 Weiser held possession of the ball for majority of the time after that, and several Wolverines made shots, but none of them made it into the goal.
 At 20 minutes the referees again gave the teams a water break to help counter the heat they were playing in. The Wolverines came back after the break and continued to control the ball.
 With just 10 minutes remaining in the game, Weiser’s Alfonso Hernandez took a hard hit to his head when competing for the ball and was subbed out of the game. Moments later, Chris Gonzalez made the fourth goal for the Wolverines.
 Gonzalez kept up his drive and energy and scored the final goal with just 4 minutes remaining in the half.
 The game ended as a 5-0 win for the Wolverines.
 Bokides again felt that the teams passing was what helped secure the win for them.
 “I felt better about their passing. I think the work we’ve done on ball touches helped too. I think that is what helped with Edgar’s and Pedro’s scoring. They were able to get the ball out of the air and just shoot it, instead of having to touch it a lot.”
Weiser vs. Fruitland, 3-1
 The game against the Fruitland Grizzlies on Sept. 3 was an eventful first conference match of the season for the Wolverines. The varsity game began a little early because Fruitland didn’t have enough JV players to play a full game.
 Fruitland made the first shot of the game, but Rasmussen stopped it. Shortly after, Cornejo made an attempted shot and collided with the Grizzly goalie. After that, Weiser made several more shots, but couldn’t get past the goalie. Wolverine Ander Barbot was finally able to get a long outside shot right over the Fruitland goalie and into the top back of the net. This put the score to 1-0 for Weiser.
 After some back and forth play, Weiser got the ball back in front of the Fruitland net, where Cornejo made a slide tackle attempt shot at the goal. The Grizzly goalie was able to make the save, but again collided with Cornejo. The goalie went down injured. No foul was called on Cornejo, and the assistant coach for Fruitland was given a red card after arguing with the referees. He then went to the fan side of the field and for a while refused to leave the playing area as required. Play was finally able to resume after he eventually removed himself from the field after speaking with an administrator.
 In an aggressive move to gain control of the ball, Cornejo again collided with another Fruitland player and was given a yellow card and subbed out.
 Play was back and forth and at one point was in front of the Fruitland net. Two Weiser players, Barbot and Manny Chavez both jumped up to head the ball, and collided. The collision left Barbot with a cut on the side of this head, and he had to be subbed out.
 Right inside Weiser’s goal box, a foul was called on a Weiser player and Fruitland received a penalty kick. The shot was just out of Rasmussen’s reach into the net and placed Fruitland on the board for a tie of 1-1.
 The Wolverines utilized their passing skills and had control of the ball for the majority of the rest of the half. They took several shots at the Grizzly goal and had several close calls, but none that made it in.
 Play during the second half started just like the last half ended. Weiser made several pushes to the Fruitland side and used controlled passing to keep possession of the ball. Turner was able to make a push to the Fruitland goal and get the ball passed the goalie. This took the score to 2-1 with  Weiser in front at the 12-minute mark.
 At 25 minutes, play was once again in front of the Fruitland net. Several Weiser players followed the ball in, and Bake was able to get the ball to the back of the net, to bring the score to 3-1.
 Several more shots were attempted during the last 15 minutes of play but the score stayed the same.
 “We continue to try to improve on our ball touches, passing and scoring,” Bokides said after the game.
 One aspect she said they have worked on is their body traps, to get the ball out of the air and in control, and was she pleased with how the players were putting that practice to work during the game. She also felt that there were some outstanding series of passes made through the game, which helped lead to the win.