Post Photo by Rickey Clardy Alejandro Catalan drills the ball for the Vikings.
By RICKEY CLARDY
Sports Writer
UNIONVILLE —The Forrest Rockets held a 1-goal lead at the half over the Community Vikings before two second-half goals gave the Rockets some breathing room as Forrest shut out the Vikings 3-0 in a District 9-A soccer match Thursday night.
It was a match pitting the physical play of the Rockets versus the finesse of the Vikings as the two teams battled to gain the upper hand.
Both teams had chances at goals in the opening 10 minutes before the Rockets used a relentless offensive attack to pepper shots at the Viking goal for the rest of the half.
With Community goalie Reily Anica stopping several Rocket shots from close range, the game remained scoreless before Matheus Bretanha took a rebound off a miss and found the back of the net with 24:22 remaining in the first half to give Forrest a 1-0 lead.
The rest of the Rocket attempts for the remainder of the half were off the mark while the Vikings came close to tying the match as a cross in front of the Forrest net barely missed as the Rockets took their lead into the intermission.
With the change of ends to start the second half, the Vikings used a strong northerly wind to move the ball out of their own zone.
But Rocket goalie Landon Groeneveld was up to the task of keeping the Vikings off the scoreboard.
The Rockets found a bit of a break with 26:40 remaining in the half as a penalty kick gave Forrest a chance to improve its advantage.
On the kick by Damian Hames, the ball rebounded off the goalie but still went over the goal line as the Rockets increased their lead to 2-0.
The Rockets added an insurance goal with 8:32 remaining as Juan Bosco Valdivieso took the ball after it bounced over the goalie and followed it into the open net to give Forrest its final goal of the night.
Forrest 1 2 – 3
Community 0 0 – 0
First Half
F — Matheus Bretanha goal (24:22)
Second Half
F — Damian Hames penalty kick (26:40)
F — Juan Bosco Valdivieso goal (8:32)
