By Aimee YEGHIAYAN

With Monday’s 5-1 win over Burbank behind them, the Falcons boys’ soccer team came onto the field yesterday against Hoover at Toll Middle School expecting a repeat performance. Although teamwork and focus seemed to be lacking initially, the Falcons came back strong in the second half, resulting in a 4-1 victory and moving CV up to 7-1-3 in league and 17-2-6 overall.

CV is tied for first in leaue with Burroughs High School.

“I think the first half is part of our problem. We take a while to get our intensity up and get started during the game. We need that little spark to get us going. Second half is when we come alive,” said midfielder/defender Falcon Rani Dimashki. “We are a second half team, definitely.”

That was apparent during Wednesday’s game. Beginning with an attempted goal from CV co-captain Amir Hajimirsadeghi to Erick Trejo, both the Falcons and the Tornadoes seemed to lack the final push to get the point.

With the first goal made by Hoover on a foul by Falcon Brian Ju, the future didn’t look too bright for CV. A foul by Hoover quickly followed, giving Dimashki a chance at a goal. A yellow card was given to Ju after a foul on Hoover, removing Ju from the game. As the infractions of the game continued, Hoover fouled Dimashki.

To close out the first half, Falcon co-captain Matt Bracht brought that spark Dimashki said they needed to get going, tying up the score 1-1.

“I knew I had to do something. I basically gave up the goal against us. I ran in and knew the defender that was marking against me wasn’t very good. Pablo [Hernandez] just made a perfect ball right there, and I just hit it in,” said Bracht.

The beginning of the second half saw a goal by Dimashki, helping to stoke the fire and bringing the score to 2-1 CV.

“We had a corner kick and the ball was bouncing around in the box. [Chris Sinani] managed to get a head on it at the top of the 18th and I saw the keeper coming. I just kept on running because we always have to anticipate if the keeper is going to drop it,” recalled Dimashki. “He did end up dropping it and I was just right in front of the goal and just touched it in.”

That goal was followed by another foul, this time on Trejo in the box, resulting in another goal for CV. A yellow card was given to Hoover for hitting Dimashki in the head, leading to a final goal by Trejo, the scoreboard reading 4-1 for the Falcons.

After multiple substitutes for CV, a foul was called on Hoover yet again, this time on Russell Carpenter, resulting in a kick by Hernandez over the net.

“We have to win every single game. We can’t afford any ties or losses. We just have to keep up the good work, just like against these teams,” said Dimashki.

With only three games left in the season, the Falcons must keep winning if they hope to maintain the success of last year’s team.

“Everyone should be stepping it up now if we want to win league again,” said Bracht. “Once everyone realizes it, which they have, we will
be fine. Everyone just has to step
it up.”

The Falcons next play Burroughs at 3:15 p.m. on Friday at CVHS.

  Aimee YEHGIAYAN