Boys' soccer starts their league season

Gregory BoehmStaff WriterSamo kicked off its league season with a 3-0 win against Inglewood High School on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at Samo.Compared to Samo’s performance at the last two pre-season games, the first half started out very slow. Samo had many opportunities, but no one managed to fully execute their shots.“I am actually not very happy with the boys today,” coach Serafin Rodriguez said. “We should have capitalized on a lot of opportunities. We should have scored at least six, seven goals.”By the second half, Samo began to improve. The first goal of the game, however, was off of an Inglewood player. The ball was driven in front of the goal by a cross from senior midfielder Zach Leal and was somehow deflected off of an Inglewood player into his own net.Samo soon got another cross which was delivered by senior forward Barack Cassily to senior forward Kevin Eyler who headed the ball into the goal.With a 2-0 lead, Samo was able to relax a bit despite Inglewood coming very close to scoring a goal two times.Sophomore goalkeeper Eric Stocker was up by the 40 yard-line while the ball was in front of Inglewood’s goal. When an Inglewood player stole it and delivered a chip right to a forward, Stocker was the last hope. In a valiant effort, he charged the player and managed to steal the ball away from him. Samo was able to prevent Inglewood from scoring on the open goal as Stocker ran back onto his line.Pressure was put on Stocker once again when midfielder Marco Tejada made a dangerous tackle inside Samo’s penalty box that resulted in a penalty kick for Inglewood. Stocker was able block the shot.“I kind of have a strategy that I use to read the player's hips,” Stocker said. “There’s probably like a 75% chance that I guess right and then it’s just luck from there.”Even after these close calls, Tejada managed to make one more goal with a header from a cross sent by senior midfielder Zach Leal.According to Rodriguez, the team still did not manage to capitalize on a great deal of opportunities.“We’re going to focus on finishing on the final turn,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what the big difference was today. We were running up the ball all the way up to the final turn and then we just didn’t know what to do with the ball.”Regardless of any mistakes, Samo still shut the opposing team out and started their official season off with a bang.“It’s always great to get a win in the league opener,” Rodriguez said. “It just gives you momentum and it gives you confidence going into Culver City on Friday.”Samo will now go on to play Culver City High School in an away game on Friday, Jan. 13.gboehm@thesamohi.com