The Lake Oswego boys soccer team dominates from start to finish.
The Lake Oswego boys soccer team was already in control.
The Lakers, hosting Tigard in Three Rivers League play at Lake Oswego High School on Thursday, Oct. 13, held the upper hand throughout the night’s first half and took a one-goal lead into the break.
But as good as that had been, Lake Oswego was even better in the final 40 minutes. The Lakers didn’t allow Tigard a shot on goal, got two scores from junior forward Jeb Scipio del Campo and rolled to a dominant 3-0 victory.
“We were really motivated because we wanted to go out there and prove something tonight,” Scipio del Campo said. “I think we created a lot of chances — I had a lot of good chances — and we could have scored even more goals.”
“I think we’ve just got our confidence up,” said junior forward Evan Huber, who assisted on LO’s second goal. “We built our chemistry over the season and I think it’s finally showing.”
“We talked about it before the game and we just knew we had to come out strong and set the tempo,” said freshman forward Greyson Sarkisian, who scored LO’s first goal early in the opening half and assisted on another. “We got in their minds and … they really felt pressured.”
With the win, the Lakers’ fourth straight, Lake Oswego (currently 22nd in the OSAA power rankings) improved to 3-0 in Three Rivers League play and 7-3-2 overall. No. 40 Tigard, meanwhile, lost for the sixth straight time and fell to 0-3 in TRL play and 1-11-0 overall. Next up, the Lakers host No. 24 West Linn at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18.
In their Thursday win over Tigard, the Lakers grabbed control early, getting a Sarkisian goal just four minutes into the contest to take a 1-0 lead. Sarkisian collected a through ball that set up a short-range chance against Tigard senior goalkeeper Donovan Villatoro, and when Villatoro came out of the goal area to challenge, Sarkisian lobbed a shot over his head into the top left corner of the Tigard net.
“I kind of have a sense whether I’m going to cross it or I’m going to shoot it and I just knew that I was going to shoot it,” Sarkisian said.
While neither team scored in the final 36 minutes of the half, it wasn’t for lack of opportunity. The Lakers’ best chances came when Huber missed a short shot over the Tigard goal with 16 minutes left in the half, while Scipio del Campo saw his hard shot from the right side stopped by Villatoro with four minutes left to play.
Tigard, meanwhile, got a strong shot from the left side that LO senior keeper Hayes Donaldson dove to deflect with 13 minutes to go, and Donaldson then blocked the follow-up shot by Tiger junior Pedro Perez Ramirez while still sitting on the turf.
The second half, however, was all Lake Oswego. While Tigard didn’t manage a shot on goal in the game’s final 40 minutes, the Lakers blasted off 13 shots — including seven on goal — while also earning three corner kicks.
“We definitely identified what they were trying to do — they were trying to play it over the top — so we talked to our back line about stepping back about two yards … and it just worked perfectly,” Sarkisian said.
“We just took two steps back from their players and waited for them to take the ball into their own possession and then stepped on them when they made a mistake,” Huber said. “When we stepped off of them, it helped a lot and we were able to go forward better and play out to the wings.”
The Lakers got great attacks from Sarkisian and Scipio del Campo in the first four minutes of the half, and while neither of those connected, LO’s next strong chance did.
Huber flicked a pass past the Tigard defense into the middle of the Tiger penalty box to Scipio del Campo with 29:09 left on the clock and he chipped it over Villatoro to make it 2-0.
“In that second half, we really clicked tonight, especially Evan’s assist to me tonight with the outside of his foot — that was a great ball,” Scipio del Campo said.
Scipio del Campo and the Lakers were back in goal less than 10 minutes later, this time with Sarkisian crossing the ball into the Tigard box from the right corner and Scipio del Campo headed the ball over Villatoro to the far post for the final 3-0 margin.
The Lakers’ three forwards — Huber, Scipio del Campo and Sarkisian — showed their ability to connect and play in concert against the Tigers.
“Greyson is super fast and Jeb holds the ball up and he can turn players, too,” Huber said. “And then I kind of take the ball and dribble or do whatever, so I think we have a good trio. I think we are going to be good going into these next games.”
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