Wood puts up challenges Royals met, exceeded

Varsity: The boys on the Armijo soccer team really showed up Thursday night to win against Will C. Wood Wildcats. They pushed strong from the beginning and battled back and forth with the Wildcats through the center and wings.

The Royals finally managed to sink one in about 15 minutes with a cross from senior captain Diego Torres whose shot was assisted in by the Wood defense. Then, about 10 minutes later, senior Esteban Carcamo sent a beautiful ball through to Torres to score his second goal of the game.

At the half, the score was in favor of the Royals at 2-0 with some obviously upset Wood players. Armijo knew, coming back in, that the Wildcats would step it up and be targeting a couple of the Royals who they had already been warned to not foul again. Halfway through the second half Wood was able to sink one in off the corner kick making the score 2-1.

The Royals were able to hold off the Wildcats for the rest of the half even after a major injury to one of Armijo’s players (Abraham Perez Ascencio) who Wood had repeatedly fouled. It was a well fought game by the Armijo boys and overall they held themselves back from responding to Wood players’ verbal disrespect. This game knocked Will C Wood out of  1st place and bumped Armijo up into 2nd for league, with Vaca High still leading in 1st by a five-goal differential.

Armijo takes on that 1st place team on Tuesday, January 17 at their home turf.

JV: The boys were looking to continue their momentum against Will C Wood who significantly improved from last year. Armijo was able to get one in the first half after Jeremiah Tam centered a ball in from a free kick where Isaac Aguirre controlled the ball and chipped the goalkeeper to make it 1-0.

In the second half, there were a lot of tough battles and both teams ended with one red card each. Wood was able to get a goal from a free kick on the edge of the box to make it 1-1. Towards the end there was a couple opportunities but the boys weren’t able to secure the win.