Mustangs Stumble Against Warriors
Dec 19, 2024 01:50PM ● By Alejandro Barron
Ahmad Ahmadi of the Monterey Trail Mustangs attempts to steal the ball away from a Hiram Johnson Warrior in their pre-season match on Dec. 11. The Mustangs would end up falling to the Warriors by a score of 2-0. Photo by Alejandro Barron
ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - A top team in the area, the Monterey Trail Mustangs, lost 2-0 against the Hiram Johnson Warriors on their home turf on Dec. 11, in a pre-season match just a week away from starting league play.
Both goals the Mustangs conceded came on counterattacks the team failed to defend during transition.
“On the two transitions we were just too flat going back to the ball,” head coach Hugo Flores said. “We need to be focused, be intense and attack the ball first.”
Coming off a weekend of tournament play where the Mustangs dropped two of three matches, they found themselves down 1-0 in less than 10 minutes into their match with Hiram Johnson.
In the 38th minute, the other counter put the Mustangs down 2-0 before the end of the first half.
“I had a free kick, and I gave it to the keeper and then we got scored off of,” team captain and senior Ivan Perez-Moreno said. “It also comes down to practice because if I were to train my free kicks more, I would’ve made it and not get scored on.”
The Mustangs had multiple occasions to create goal-scoring opportunities with a plethora of free kicks in the first half in their favor, yet none of them created any real scoring opportunities which Flores said his team needs to be more focused on.
The same could be said by Flores about his team’s performance on defending set pieces. The Warriors were able to win headers in the box, but none were able to land in the back of the net.
“We came thinking that we were just going to beat them like we beat everybody else so there’s no intensity, no focus and just no pride,” Flores said.
Flores said that the third pass was lacking during this game to be able to find the goal-scoring opportunities and avoid his team being shut out against the Warriors.
In the postgame speech, Flores told his team that his team has a target on their back.
“Last year we started slow and we finished strong,” Flores said. This year we started strong so everyone’s looking at us especially with the realignment of the school’s going to the Delta League.”
Despite the loss, the Mustangs have a chance to bounce back before league play against familiar foes like the Kennedy Cougars, McClatchy Lions and Laguna Creek Cardinals.
“I feel like Kennedy and McClatchy is going to be a really good test to help us see how we start in the league and hopefully we get the win in those games,” Perez-Moreno said.
Despite being newcomers to the Delta League, Perez-Moreno said he doesn’t feel like much will change for the program.
“I feel like we just got to lock in from here on out and have good training,” Perez-Moreno said. “Honestly, for me, I feel like everything comes down to training. If you train good, you play good.”
With the transition to the Delta League, Flores said he and the Mustangs are just going to take it one game at a time as they get a feel for some unfamiliar opponents.
The loss moved the Mustangs’ record to a 5-3-1 but went on later that week to beat the Cougars by a 2-0 score to move to six wins.
The Mustangs will play the McClatchy Lions on Dec. 16, (after press time), their final test before the start of Delta League play.
The Mustangs will then play another former Metro League team and Delta League newcomer, the Laguna Creek Cardinals, on Dec. 18.
