By Jose Terlaje

After a day of on-and-off rain, the sun came out to play as the Harvest Christian Academy Eagles took on the St.John’s Knights at St.John’s Soccer Field. The Eagles ultimately picked up the 2-0 victory behind two goals by Ricky Katsumata.

In the second half, the Eagles continued to pressure the Knights and win the ball in the midfield, giving them commanding control of the ball. In the 58^th minute, Harvest’s Katsumata broke away from the SJS defense and was able to get a 1-on-1 with the Knights’ keeper who was called for charging Katsumata and eventually received a red card.

Katsumata was awarded a penalty kick that he sent straight to the bottom right corner of the SJS goal with ease.

The Eagles then took advantage of the Knights having to play with one less man on the field and took more shots on goal. The Knights had a number of opportunities to score after being awarded numerous free kicks but Xavier Kirksey was unable to find the back of the net.

HCA then got back on track as Kobe Sotelo was found with a long through ball in the air that he volleyed to Katsumata who blasted a finessed shot right past the SJS keeper to extend the Eagles’ lead to 2-0.

SJS then started to try getting something going with long passes through the air but Jon Cabral of the Eagles kept his team out of trouble, clearing a majority of the passes sent in his direction. The Knights were given a number of set pieces that could have cut the lead but were unable to capitalize on them as the match came to an end.

The Eagles and Knights traded possessions for a majority of the first half. Although the Eagles set the pace of the half, the Knights were able to get a few breaks but most of their efforts were thwarted by HCA’s Jon Cabral who constantly won the ball in the air for his team.

SJS’ Takumi Odell had a few solid passes that could have been turned into scoring opportunities but his teammates were unable to get to the ball. The two teams battled it out but were both unlucky in scoring, causing the first half to end nil-nil.

When asked about his defensive prowess during the match, the undersized HCA defender Jon Cabral responded, “My team and I really just want to win badly especially after coming up short last season.”

Cabral added that his team has goals set in place to do their best to not concede any more goals as well as learn to adapt to their opponents’ style of play quicker in order to get a rhythm going in the matches.

Wendy’s Player of the Game, Jon Cabral of the Harvest Eagles. (photo by Daniel Paran)

PHOTO GALLERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Fujin Shimoda chases after the ball to get the Knights on offense. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Xavier Kirksey of the Knights clears the ball out of the penalty area. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Ricky Katsumata is given a free kick and scores with ease. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Kobe Sotelo stops the ball in time from going out of bounds. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Warriors’ goalie Sean Evans grabs hold of the ball before Luke Kim could score. (photo by Daniel Paran)