The Clarke Central High School varsity boys soccer team were defeated 4-1 by Apalachee High School on Mar. 20. CCHS took an early lead through a Yael Calvillo free-kick, but surrendered the lead. “We started off with good pace and got an early goal but as the game went on Apalachee stepped their game up and caught us sleeping,” senior Gerardo Arteaga said. Photo by Chad Rhym.
By ROBERT WALKER – Managing Editor
On Mar. 20, the Clarke Central High School varsity boys soccer team took on Apalachee High School at Billy Henderson Stadium in a region 8-AAAAA clash that ended 1-4 to AHS.
Despite an early Clarke Central High School goal, the Gladiators conceded four consecutive goals to lose 4-1 to Apalachee High School. The CCHS varsity boys soccer team faced off with AHS on Mar. 20 at Billy Henderson stadium in their second 8-AAAAA region game of the 2015 season.
“Last night’s game was a horrible showing by Central. We started out the game winning 1-0, then Apalachee came back 3-1 in the first half,” junior Charles de Leon Franzen said. After this we put our heads down and convinced ourselves we could not beat an inferior team.”
CCHS took a 1-0 lead in the first half behind a Yael Calvillo free-kick that gave the Gladiators their only lead of the game.
“We started off with good pace and got an early goal. But, as the game went on Apalachee stepped their game up and caught us sleeping,” senior Gerardo Arteaga said.
Following the CCHS goal, AHS scored four successive goals, taking a lead that they would hold for the remainder of the game.
“I don’t think they were the better team I just think we had several mistakes and have a lot to work on from now on,” Arteaga said. “I think me and my teammates really took this first region loss as a wake up call and realized we have to step it up from now on.”
The loss against AHS marks CCHS’ first region loss of the season, giving the Gladiators a 1-1 region record, according to de Leon Franzen, this loss may benefit the team in the long run.
“This loss was a wake-up call for Central. I guarantee that every boy on the team will be thinking about this game all weekend,” de Leon Franzen said. “We just need to come back Monday with a better attitude, ready to work on fixing the mistakes we saw in the game and move on.”
Junior Scholl Wright believes that to be competitive in region play, there are both mental and physical improvements that the Gladiators need to make.
“(We need to improve) how we play offensively. We realized that we had little to no success in offense last game and that won’t cut it against upcoming region opponents, I think we just didn’t really have the right mindset going in and we made a lot of silly mistakes that cost us goals,” Wright said.
