Falcons rip Drillers, take lead in SWYL boys soccer race
| Friday, Feb 03 2012 10:50 PM
Last Updated Friday, Feb 03 2012 11:19 PM
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Branden Frazier of Independence and Driller Parker Campbell tangle at mid-field while going for control of the ball.
Branden Frazier uses a high kick to stop a ball that got by Bakersfield's Miguel Ramos.
Bakersfield's Parker Campbell and Brian Stewart grab each other as the fight for the ball in the second half at Griffith Field.
Gonzalo Rolon of Bakersfield, left, and Javier Mendoza of Independence fight for ball control at mid-field.
Chaos has descended on the Southwest Yosemite League boys soccer race, courtesy of Independence and an über-efficient counter-attack.
That was plain to see Friday, when the Falcons whipped host Bakersfield 4-1 on Griffith Field to slip into the SWYL lead with a week left in the regular season.
"We just score and hopefully win," junior forward Branden Frazier said. "We go all out, 100 percent. We're pretty confident in what we're doing."
Frazier put the Falcons (10-10-3, 6-2-0 SWYL) on top within the first 15 minutes, and Independence held on until halftime through consistent Bakersfield pressure.
The second half brought more of the same, except that Independence was tremendous on the counter-attack: Their first opportunity led to a corner kick; the ball bounded to the outside and Frazier banged home his second goal. Frazier fed Rudy Gonzales on another counter for a 3-0 lead with 14 minutes left.
"We practice the counter a lot with Frazier and Gonzales," Independence coach Aurelio Jacinto said. "We practice stopping the counter and getting on the attack as soon as we can. I've never seen a defense isolate those two guys."
Bakersfield (14-2-3, 5-1-2) got a pretty goal from Tre Demison -- and perhaps should have cut the lead to 3-2 on a corner kick that appeared to deflect past the goal line before the Falcons cleared it.
But no goal was called, and Indy wasn't done anyway: One last counter-attack led to a penalty kick, which was converted by Brian Stewart.
"Every time," Bakersfield coach Archie Parks said. "They were like three-for-five on the counter-attack. They're good at that. We played just well enough to hold them off for a while, and then they took it at us."
Bakersfield put pressure on the whole game, but its typical one-two punch of Ramiro Barraza and Demison had trouble finding space. When they did, Independence goalkeeper Hector Valdez was often there. He finished with nine saves.
"We wanted to secure the back," Jacinto said. "We know what they have with those guys. I kept yelling, 'Take away their runs,' because they wanted to bring us up high and then run past us."
In a fitting twist at the end of the game, Bakersfield's Jorge Reyes hit the crossbar on his own penalty-kick attempt.
"We just haven't been playing very well," Parks said. "Hopefully we don't fall too far down the ladder after that. But they're a great team; I told the guys they would come after us, and they did."
The result muddies up the SWYL standings. Independence, with six wins and no ties, has 18 points. Bakersfield and Liberty (both 5-1-2) have 17. The Falcons and Patriots finish with each other next Friday, while Bakersfield plays Frontier and Centennial.
No matter what happens, Independence has left its 4-8-3 start way behind. So far behind, in fact, that the Falcons consider themselves among the Central Section favorites in Division III.
"Everything's clicking," Jacinto said. "These guys are putting it together. We keep looking at rankings, and I think we'll be a contender. We're beating D-I and D-II schools, and that proves to us that we can play with anyone."
And Friday's result will do nothing to dispute that notion.
"I knew we were going to come together as a team eventually," Frazier said. "We just had to work really hard."
