RHS soccer teams snatch second in Area
Both the boys’ and girls’ teams clinched second place behind West Morgan in 4A-5A Area 14 with wins over Haleyville on a rainy night at RHS April 19. The following evening, RHS honored the seniors, and the boys took a 9-1 win over Danville after the girls defeated the Hawks by an 8-0 score.
In the girls’ game versus Danville, Russellville senior Juana Juarez scored four goals to help lead the Golden Tigers to victory. Juarez scored the game’s first goal just more than five minutes into the match when she used good ball-handling skills to work her way down the field and past defenders.
Juarez scored again about seven minutes later to put the Lady Golden Tigers up 2-0.
Midway through the first half, Russellville’s Joslin Pinto found the back of the net with a goal, and later, RHS got two more goals from Juarez to lead 5-0 at the half.
Briana Ramirez was outstanding as goalkeeper for Russellville: She made numerous stops, including a great save with 6:30 remaining in the first half and a diving stop midway through the second.
RHS got a goal from Myriam Garcia and then two more by Aranza Flores to finish off the Hawks.
In the boys’ game against Danville, Russellville struggled to convert scoring chances early in the match. Then, with 22:44 remaining in the first half, Vicente Machic scored the first of his three goals on the night.
RHS finished the opening half strong by adding a goal by Cristian Merida with 2:17 to go ,and then Juan Cano beat the goalkeeper with a shot with less than a minute remaining in the half.
Second-half goals by the Golden Tigers included two by Esvin Mateo, a couple by Machic, another by Cano and one by Francisco Matais. Julio Lopez played well filling in for injured keeper Daniel Martinez; he allowed one goal, and it came with 6:25 left to go in the match.
Coach Trey Stanford said he was pleased with Senior Night and how the RHS boys and girls finished up the regular season. “Both teams played well,” he said. “Quite a few people came out to see it, and they played hard. It was a good day overall.
“We let the seniors start and play quite a bit in each half for both teams. We’ve got a few guys that are injured, and there’s some starters that didn’t play at all,” Stanford added.
