By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– A 57 second stretch of Tuesday night’s game was all South Salem needed to turn the game’s momentum in their favor.
Down 2-1 to West Salem, the Saxons struck twice in that span, both by Yurmen Diaz to pull ahead with ten minutes remaining. The two goals came at the 11:40 mark, the 69th minute, and 10:47 mark, the 70th minute, of the second half.
“We didn’t want to lose. We haven’t lost since preseason. We were down, and it’s not a good feeling when you’re at home. It motivated me to keep on and keep going. To play as a team,” Diaz said. “It was all for them.”
It was the spark that they needed to close out the game, their fourth-straight as South extended their unbeaten streak to seven going into Friday night’s big game at McNary.
For the Titans, who started off the season so strongly coming out of the gate with a 3-1-1 start, have been in a lot of close bouts to open Central Valley Conference play. Their three defeats, to North Salem, McNary, and South, were decided by one goal.
West Salem is right there, and with the first loop through league closing up Thursday against Sprague, they know they have a chance to make a run at it in the second half of league. And it starts on Thursday when they close out the first loop through league.
“We played well. They were balanced, they took the lead deeper into the second half. We just got to keep our composure and discipline in the back to hold off othe score. It was a close game, we got to enjoy that this is a round-robin league, and we’ll get to see them again in the later half of league,” said West Salem Head Coach Salvador Gutierrez.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
