Hawk booters triumph in matchup of AAC unbeatens

by John Lucas | Sep 21, 2023 | Triton

Nahum Mencia sends the ball forward for the Hawks in a 7-0 win.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Triton stunned visiting All American 3-A/4-A Conference opponent Terry Sanford by winning a 7-0 varsity boys soccer rout Wednesday night. Both teams were unbeaten in league play.

“It was 80 minutes of soccer,” said Hawks coach Brian Foster. “It was 80 minutes of Triton soccer and what we’ve been talking about all season, what we started talking about at the beginning of the summer. And these guys are playing hard. All the cliches. They’re playing for each other. They’re trying to outplay each other. They’re sharing the ball.”

The loss drops the Bulldogs to 7-4-1 overall and 6-1 in conference play.

Junior Elias Lopez had two goals and three assists and junior Marquis Rosado had one goal and one assist to lead the Hawks (12-0, 8-0 AAC).

“(Elias Lopez) runs up front and he works as hard as anybody,” Foster said. “When you see a striker make more goals for other people than he makes for himself, he was close to a double hat trick out there tonight. And that’s because he is working hard, he’s got talent, he loves the game, and he does it every day and he tries to get better every day.”

Tzuriel Morales-Olvera, Narain Espinoza, Victor Cano and Tommy Lopez had one goal apiece and Nahum Mencia and Braeden Kessler had one assist apiece.

“Every goal was an assisted goal but one tonight,” Foster said. “And that one was because somebody was working so hard that they made one for themselves. We’ve got fullbacks scoring. We’ve got reserves scoring. And they’re all cheering each other on. They’re happy for each other, because it’s a team.”

Triton set the tone early with a pair of goals in the first six minutes of play. With 37:20 left in the first half, Elias Lopez played a Rosado throw-in off his head to Morales-Olvera, who found the back of the net. Three minutes later, Elias Lopez added the second goal on an assist from Mencia.

“Terry Sanford has been the class of this conference for years,” Foster said. “And they know that and we know that. And I think they looked at our record and they knew that we were pretty good, but I’m not sure that they knew exactly what we had. Being able to come out in that first five minutes and stick two on them, it kind of did rock them back a little bit. But then we just kept coming at them and that was something that we had talked about: being relentless on the press up front and making sure that we were sharing the ball. And when we’re sharing the ball and forcing turnovers, we’re pretty good.”

Midway through the half, Rosado scored on an assist from Elias Lopez. Espinoza followed six minutes later with a goal off a corner kick from Kessler.

Cano added one more goal late in the half on an assist from Rosado to give the Hawks a 5-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, Tommy Lopez scored on an assist from Elias Lopez, who later created a goal for himself by faking out a defender with some fancy footwork to make it 7-0.

Triton travels to conference foe Westover (1-8, 1-6) on Monday.

“If we finish like we did tonight, we’ve got the other components,” Foster said. “We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable. We’ve got to make sure everybody is pressuring each other. When these guys play each other in practice, they make sure that everybody is working as hard as they need to be working.”