Tigers fall to the Rockets

Published 12:00 am Friday, October 5, 2007

By Mike Simmons, Staff Writer

A lack of offense continued to plague the Albert Lea boys&8217; soccer team as it fell to Rochester John Marshall 3-1 Thursday night at Hammer Field.

&8220;We&8217;ve got the skill to do what we need to do, we just make to many mistakes,&8221; said Tigers head coach Elia Romano. &8220;The three goals we gave up were just a lack of soccer basics, I mean you can play 39 minutes of flawless soccer and that one remaining minute can be the difference.&8221;

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It was a senior-heavy lineup that took the field for the Tigers on Senior Night, and they started by pushing the ball downfield and keeping the Rockets on the defensive for about the first 15 minutes of play.

Then at the 24:41 mark JM&8217;s Omar Garger splashed one from the left side that slid under Tiger goalie Jordan DeVries for a 1-0 Rocket lead.

Garger and JM struck again with 7:22 remaining in the first half when he connected on a free kick from in front of the net for a 2-0 Rocket advantage. JM would score again with just 36 seconds left in the first on a header by Jonathon Orquiz and went to the break leading 3-0.

In the second half the Tigers came out with more intensity and pushed the ball to Oscar Hernandez who blasted the Tigers first score past the JM goalie with just three minutes gone by in the half.

Although Albert Lea wouldn&8217;t find the back of the net the rest of the night it continued to force the action and came away tied with the Rockets for shots on goal at nine each but came up short on the score board 3-1.

With the loss the Tigers fall to 4-6-3 on the year and will be in action again Saturday when they travel to Winona to try to avenge a 6-0 loss suffered at the hands of the Winhawks a week ago.