Vikings soccer team fights to reclaim their top spot

October 6, 2022 1:30 am
Corey Wiscomb photo Co-Captain Diego Lago gets just a little bit higher than the competition. Lago’s defense has made things incredibly difficult for opposing teams to get clean shots on the Orcas goal.
Corey Wiscomb photo Co-Captain Diego Lago gets just a little bit higher than the competition. Lago’s defense has made things incredibly difficult for opposing teams to get clean shots on the Orcas goal.

by Jefferson Freeman

Orcas High School student

After losing to Friday Harbor, the Vikings made the trip to Coupeville, who were coming off “the upset of the century” after defeating the Wolverines.

Orcas, however, provided no such experience as a crossed free kick from Sam Sutton found Diego Lago two minutes in to take a lead. The Vikings kept up their hot start with another goal five minutes later with Tommy Anderson-Cleveland sending a ball through the Coupeville back line to Kevin Ibarra running through and slotting a ball into the bottom corner for a 2-0 advantage. The home side held their line for most of the half, until, with just 3 minutes remaining, Pedro Guerro received the ball on the left wing, and sent a brilliant ball with the outside of his foot to connect to Anderson-Cleveland, who slotted home the 3-0.

Even with just minutes remaining Guerro hadn’t made his final impact on the half, as he received the ball from Sam Sutton, made his way passed Coupeville defenders and found the far corner to make the scoreline 4-0. The Wolves switched something up at the half and after scoring two goals seemed to be looking for life, however, that was cut short as Anderson-Cleveland found the bottom corner after the third assist on the day from Sutton. That would make it 5-2, the score that would see the Vikings home victorious.

The Grace Eagles have been one of the surprises of this season as they came to Orcas looking to be one of the better teams in the league. Still unbeaten they would be an important match for the Vikings to regain control of the league. However, the Eagles weren’t going to go down easily and they proved that early on as they took an early lead in front of the home crowd. They seemed to be holding quite well until a free kick, almost a mirror copy of the Vikings’ first goal against Coupeville. Even at one would be the score taken into the half.

It didn’t take long until the Vikings got their next though, winning a ball off the back line, and some terrific passing up front ended with Joaquin Shanks-Morales getting the ball to Anderson-Cleveland who slotted one from outside the box. That wouldn’t be it though, as Guillermo Sagarra-Iglessias got his first career goal on a dazzling strike to go up 3-1. That would be all as the Vikings handed the Eagles their first mark in the loss column.

The Vikings have moved up into 2nd in state RPI as they get set for a Tuesday clash with the MVC Hurricanes, a game that in Mount Vernon came down to a late winner for the Vikes to escape with a 1-0 win.