THE DALLES varsity soccer midfielder Aldo Rivas looks for an open teammate for a pass during a Columbia River Conference contest last season. The new-look Riverhawks were in Hillsboro this past weekend for a jamboree and they went 2-0-1 overall with wins over Century and Dallas. Chronicle File photo
THE DALLES varsity soccer midfielder Aldo Rivas looks for an open teammate for a pass during a Columbia River Conference contest last season. The new-look Riverhawks were in Hillsboro this past weekend for a jamboree and they went 2-0-1 overall with wins over Century and Dallas. Chronicle File photo
In his first weekend as head coach of The Dalles boy’s soccer team, Greg Burkart hustled his team out to a 2-0-1 record and goalkeeper Angel Lopez posted three shutouts in Thursday’s Century Jamboree at 53rd Street Community Park in Hillsboro.
“The results were good but there is still a substantial amount of work to do and improvement to be made if this team wants to compete with the better teams they will face on a regular basis,” said Burkart. “It was a good first step to build on but just a first step.”
Overall, the Riverhawks played in three 20-minute halves against 6A programs from Canby, Century and 5A Dallas.
In the first contest of the day, The Dalles was set up to play a more conservative solid defense-oriented style versus Canby and both teams fought to a scoreless draw.
Canby was able to garner enough offense on Lopez, but he was up to task in holding the Cougars at bay.
Burkart said TD overcame some early jitters, but responded. He credited centerback, Angel Esiquio, and leftback Leo Hernandez for doing a good job defending, while Sant Strassheim and Aldo Rivas put in a solid shift in the midfield.
“(Head) Coach Greg Burkart and (assistant) Jonathan Garrett were pleased with the effort and fighting spirit displayed by the team and believe the effort and confidence gained in this match carried over into the remaining two matches,” Burkart added.
Staked to that energy from a solid tournament start, The Dalles came out in a more offensive-oriented formation and the players responded to the change with a much more attack-minded style of play in rolling to a 1-0 triumph over Century.
The opening tally came on a breakaway goal with an aerial ball being played out of the back to a streaking Sant Strassheim, who flicked the ball on to a waiting Aldo Rivas, who then proceeded to smash the ball into the Century goal.
It was a better side-to-side performance by the Riverhawks in this matchup and Burkart said it started with the midfielders doing a solid job of ball possession.
“The spacing and link up play between defensive back line and the midfielders and forwards was much cleaner and sharper,” Burkart said. “The defense played a solid game in terms of their effort and positioning.”
Still with an undefeated record, the Riverhawks came out in full force in their finale, as Brandon Bustamante and Rivas each scored goals in grabbing a 2-0 shutout over the Dallas Dragons.
As the momentum began to simmer for TD, Bustamante kicked off the scoring run with a hot shot from 18-yards away past the Dallas goalkeeper into the upper right hand corner of the goal to make it a 1-0 score.
As the match progressed, so did the Riverhawks with the pressure putting Dallas on its heels.
Finally, the Riverhawks tacked on an insurance marker late with Rivas doing the honors on an impressive coast-to-coast dribbling display before firing a bullet past the Dragon keeper for the goal.
“Overall, the team played hard,” Burkart said. “The attitude of the players was positive and the players gained confidence as the games progressed. The team will need to bring the positive attitude back to the practice field and continue to work hard.”
On the junior varsity side, The Dalles went 1-1-1 with a loss to Canby and a 1-1 tie versus Century, as Alex Lopez scored the Hawks’ lone goal.
In the last game of the afternoon, TD faced Dallas and Eric Flores, Pedro Lopez and Bustamante each scored goals in a 3-0 JV triumph.
Up next, TD heads to Redmond for a match against the 5A Panthers at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.