By Hannah Helbert

The Patrick County High School boys’ varsity soccer team had a tough week last week with three hard games. The Cougars finished the week with three losses.

Monday, April 9, the Cougars faced the Bulldogs from Martinsville High School. At half-time Martinville was winning 1-0 from a shot that deflected off a few PC defenders and into the goal. During the second half the Bulldogs got their second goal the same as the first, deflecting off Cougar defenders and into the goal.

The Cougars would answer with a goal of their own from Luis Ramirez who was assisted by Gonzalo Vargas. However, the Bulldogs were relentless as they would add two more goals before the end of the game. The final score was 4-1.

“We had several opportunities to score in both halves of the game, we just couldn’t finish. I believe this game could have gone either way and the score could have been higher for both teams,” said Head Coach Oscar Tejeda.

He continued, “We also had an early injury to one of my senior captains, Jordan Dalton, who has had an incredible year so far. He leads the Cougars in scoring. We lost him early in the first half and losing one of your best players hurts but our team still fought hard without one of their leaders.”

On Tuesday, the Cougars battled against George Washington. In the first half at the 18th minute, a GW player would be the first to score in the game. A PK from standout player Jordan Dalton would bring the Cougars even with the Eagles at 1-1.

PC continued to battle hard but a mishandled pass gave GW an opportunity to score again in the final two minutes of the game.

The Cougars lost 2-1.

“The second half we played better and created more opportunities than the first. We had several shots on goal but fell short,” said Tejeda of Tuesday’s game.  “We played extremely hard and I’m proud of how we performed, we just keep falling short and were unable to capitalize on our scoring opportunities.

“Losing in the last two minutes of a game is worse than losing 8-0 in my opinion. The bright side of this is that we are not being shut out and we have opportunities to win games, we just need to get back into finishing at the net,” he continued.

Dalton, who was injured in the previous game, was very limited on his playing time for this game. “Once he is back to 100% I know that will make a difference but we have to stay healthy to remain competitive,” said Tejeda of the injured captain.

The Cougars continue to improve and learn from each game and Tejeda sees no reason to lose any confidence in the team, “I am still confident that we have a strong team in the Piedmont and both of our losses these past two nights could have went either way had some goals went our way. But we can’t keep that mindset, we have to start finishing when the opportunities are given.”

The final game of the week on Friday was against Tunstall High School. The Cougars hosted and lost 3-1. At half-time the Cougars were down 1-0 to the Trojans.

“We are battling with injuries at the moment but are trying to stay

competitive. We tried to make some adjustments during the first half when we lost two captains early in the half due to injuries,” said Tejeda.

“I don’t believe we was ready to play tonight and losing key players hurts but we have to adapt and adjust,” he concluded.

The Cougars are now 4-4 and will play at Floyd County High School on Wednesday, April 18th. Game start time is 7 p.m.