Rosewood’s Aaron Zamora, left, and Spring Creek’s Yoban Aron Perez-Mazariegos battle for possession of the ball Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Rosewood’s Reece Gery (13) knocks Spring Creek’s Homar Elias Lopez-Castro off the ball at midfield during second-half action Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek head coach Miguel Torres reminds his team at halftime to keep focus against county rival Rosewood durng soccer action Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Rosewood’s Aedan Peacock (5) stretches to get a boot on the ball against Spring Creek co-captain Cristian Omar Juarez-Lopez. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Cristian Omar Juarez-Lopez, back, connects on a header after Rosewood’s Aaron Zamora just missed touching the ball. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek senior co-captain Ozias Miteu (10) works the ball into open space against Rosewood defender Aedan Peacock on Wednesday evening. Miteu scored a natural hat trick (three consecutive goals) in the Gators’ 3-0 win. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Yonatan Gonzalez Morales, back, attempts to keep the ball away from Rosewood’s Aaron Zamora on Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Willi Lopez-Gonzalez (2) goes after the loose ball after Rosewood attempted a first-half corner kick Wednesday evening. The Eagles’ Gavin Cuddeback (12) gets knocked away as the Gators’ Ozias Miteu (10), Jeheili Magdiel Velasquez-Sanchez (4) and Miguel Angel Zepeda-Montes (11) defend on the play. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Yoban Aron Perez-Mazariegos (3) and Rosewood’s Ian Smith work to gain possession on the far sideline near the Eagles’ bench Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Spring Creek’s Cristian Omar Juarez-Lopez (21) works to keep the ball away from Rosewood’s Sergio Aburto (8) and Landon Lowery (3) during first-half play Wednesday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
SEVEN SPRINGS — One position change sparked Spring Creek’s offense and caused havoc defensively against county rival Rosewood on the soccer pitch Wednesday evening.
Ozias “Z” Miteu posted a natural hat trick (three consecutive goals) for the Gators, who prevailed 3-0 at “The Swamp.”
“Happy, but definitely not content,” said SC head coach Miguel Torres. “We definitely wanted to work on creating more goal-scoring opportunities and scoring more goals, and I think this was the game to do it. ‘Z’ got the hat trick, but I wanted to get more players involved on the stat sheet, so I think we could have done better with that.”
Depleted by graduation a year ago, the perennial powers played disjointed offensively in the opening half. Counter attacks fueled goal-scoring opportunities, which forced each team to push either forward or back on defense.
Gator goalie Edgar Avila-Anguiano stopped all four shots he faced. Eagle net-minder Collin Beasley did the same on his end.
The teams entered halftime knotted in a scoreless draw.
Torres opted to move Miteu from sweeper to midfield.
“Like I told him, it was time for the younger players to step up, show out in this kind of atmosphere and environment against Rosewood [because] they’re not an easy opponent,” Torres said. “The second half, we wanted to let him do his thing up front and because he’s dangerous offensively.”
The senior co-captain aggressively attacked open spaces and utilized his speed to defeat defenders one-on-one. His quality work ethic produced goals in the 44th, 46th and 47th minutes.
Jeheili Velasquez-Sanchez, Marin Lopez-Perez and Yonatan Gonzalez-Morales supplied one assist apiece during the quick-strike blitz.
“I’m disappointed because we allowed one player to dominate the game,” said Rosewood coach Eddie Maldonado, who returns three starters from a year ago. “There’s 11 of us and I’m not saying we have to match him skill-wise because he’s a good player, but you can’t be afraid to step to him, can’t allow him to have free headers in the box and have open looks at the goal.”
Junior Chris Oliva-Almanza replaced Beasley between the pipes and stopped six tries by the Gators, who attempted 15 shots on the night.
Avila-Anguiano logged six saves for Spring Creek, which notched its ninth consecutive win over Rosewood and improved to 15-3-1 overall in the series since 2010.
A pair of all-region selections last season, Miteu and Velasquez-Sanchez comprise the lone returning core for Torres’ club. The two-time defending Neuse Six 2A champions, the Gators are an uncharacteristic 3-7-0 with two non-conference outings left on their schedule before league action kicks off in late September.
“A learning experience,” Torres said. “In practice, I tell him the short-team goal is focus on the conference season that’s coming up for us and all these games help prepare us for that. Right now, I know it’s hard for them and it’s hard for me. Our record just has to be put aside and work on getting better game by game.
“The players are hungry and they’re eager to get better.”
Spring Creek returns home next Monday to face former East Central 2A rival East Duplin. Rosewood (4-3-0) launches defense of its Carolina 1A crown at Hobbton the same evening.
