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By Robert Balajadia

Geckos’ Eddie Perez tries to head bump the ball into the net from a penalty kick, but sends it to the outside. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Early season boys soccer in the IIAAG went down Wednesday with the Southern Dolphins improving to a winning record (2-1) as they trumped the GW Geckos 3-2 at the Guam Football Association Field in Harmon.

The Geckos suffered their first loss of the season against the St. John’s Knights over the weekend and drop to (0-2) in the early goings. However, the Geckos were on the comeback trail after getting down 3-0 in the second half after an unusual turn of events.

Southern had a comfortable two-goal lead on the Geckos when an injury happened in the games 60th minute. A then fair-play situation was in effect when Dolphins’ Donovan Reyes sent the ball to the Geckos keeper Joaquin Sanchez from midfield. With the game still on-going, the ball took one bounce and sailed over Sanchez, netting the third goal for the Dolphins.

“There was no call during the injury, but we just kicked the ball back to the keeper from midfield as a pass back and the ball unintentionally went in. It was meant for the keeper to have possession since it was a fair-play and it was a courtesy. We didn’t want to win like that so we did that to avoid any controversy in the win today,” stated head coach Joe Cruz.

Geckos’ Kent Ono and Dolphins’ Keith Surber try to gain control of the ball for their team. (photo by Jesse Castro)

“Coach pulled me to the side and told me to go for goal after the touch. I took the touch, took a shot and it ended up going in. After it went in I felt kind of bad and coach told me to go ahead and give them the goal back so I went ahead and scored the own-goal,” Reyes said after the awkward outing.

“I’ve never done anything like that in my life,” laughed Reyes.

And the Geckos did just that by having Reyes score a goal on his own team to keep the Dolphin lead at just two, 3-1.

Geckos Raymond Macias scored late in the game in the 76th minute as Dolphins goalie Brandon Carbullido attempted to chase the ball outside of his goal box, but not until Macias tipped it past Carbullido’s coverage to score the east goal to pull GW within one.

The Dolphin defense held on allowing no shots at goal in the games final minutes.

Most teams in the boys league are still coming into form and Cruz believes anyone can take the title this year.

“Any win is good, but this is an opportunity for us to see gauge where we are at. High school level soccer is like a Division 1 soccer league, any one of the top six teams can win this thing and we’re hoping we get that same opportunity,” said Cruz.

On behalf of the players, Reyes still needs to see more from his team if they want make it to the next level.

“Our confidence got a boost with the win today, but I expected more from my team coming into this game. I’m not too happy with our performance today, but I told my team after the game that we will take what we learned from today and we can only get better.”

Southern got their first goal in the 3rd minute of the game as Napu Topasna got through the Geckos defense for the games first goal.

Southern scored their second goal in the 55th minute off a penalty kick from Reyes.

Other Scores:

St. John’s 3, FD 1

PHOTO GALLERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Dolphins’ Donny Reyes passes the ball gaining control of it for his team. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Dolphins’ goal keeper Celvin Lujan sends the ball back out and into play. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Geckos’ Raymond Macias passes the ball towards the goal. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Dolphins’ Scottie Angoco passes the ball downfield to move the ball into Geckos territory. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Geckos’ AJ Root tries to steel the ball away from Dolphins’ Scottie Angoco. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Dolphins’ Scottie Angoco passes the ball and keeps the ball in play in Gecko territory. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Geckos’ Eddie Perez gains control of the ball from Dolphins’ Ryan Teologo. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Geckos’ Jordan Rosario steels the ball away from Dolphins’ Joe Sekine. (photo by Jesse Castro)

Dolphins’ Donny Reyes keeps his eyes on the ball as tries to gain control of it. (photo by Jesse Castro)

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