Warriors end long slide vs. Demons, 2-1

Fike High head coach Chris Mizelle said the winning streak had reached 20 or 21 matches. The Hunt folks hadn’t been counting the consecutive losses. Hunt athletic director Jon Smith did acknowledge: “It’s been a while.”

Regardless, the Hunt varsity boys soccer team defeated the Golden Demons for the first time since the 2016 season in hanging on for a 2-1 victory on the Hunt pitch on a dandy Monday night, Oct. 7. The Warriors notched their first 3-A Quad County Conference win against four losses and improved to 5-7-1 overall.

Fike dipped to 2-3 in the league and to 6-7-1 against all foes. The archrivals continue conference play Wednesday evening at 6:30 at home, with Hunt opposing conference leader Charles B. Aycock and Fike welcoming West Johnston.

With the Warriors nursing a 2-0 advantage, the final 12 minutes were filled with anxiety. Hunt was forced to play with 10 players against the regulation 11 for Fike when Warriors senior Jay  Misback was red-carded and disqualified for taking down a Fike player.

“It happened in the moment,” Misback explained, “and it was stupid on my part. I had never won against Fike, and this feels great!”

“I heard we hadn’t beat Fike since 2016,” junior defender Will Doll commented. “We had stuff kind of not going our way, and it definitely motivated our team to play better, knowing we were playing Fike and not Southern Wayne or somebody else.”

The Hunt 10 denied Fike and continued the shutout until Fike’s Christopher Escobedo whizzed a shot past Warriors sophomore goalkeeper Connor McIntosh with a minute and 12 seconds remaining. Escobedo slid under the keeper and got off the accurate shot.

Doll contended the goal resulted because of miscommunication between the keeper and a teammate.

The Demons retained possession, and a Hunt defense keyed by Doll and sophomore Mark Dixon survived a last-ditch Fike corner kick. McIntosh, Doll and Dixon were complemented by senior Kenan Collins and freshman Talon Mayo.

“We took one of our players out of midfield and moved him to outside back,” Doll noted of the strategic approach being a player down. “That filled up more room at the defensive spot to take control in back.”

“If you were watching, you wouldn’t have known we were a man up,” Mizelle declared. “We brought in a couple of young guys that showed a little heart and passion. That’s kind of the way we have been playing the last few games. If we had played that way tonight, it might have been a different outcome.”

Junior midfielder Chris Hill agreed with his coach that it did not seem Fike was the beneficiary of an extra player.

Hill failed to connect on a legitimate attempt the closing moments, and Rayan Rodriguez’s free kick sailed over the goal. Enrique Arizpe failed to connect on a pair of free kicks after the Warriors were left a player down. Hunt got second-half tries from Mayo and freshman Zane Eaton

Fike got stellar play from goalkeeper James Nestor and defenders Pete Bolt, Gabriel Castillo, Victor Vasquez and Ethan Capps,

The renewal of the rivalry was scoreless until, with 18:27 left in the first half, Hunt’s Misback launched, from some 25 yards away on the left side, a shot that sailed over the Fike keeper and into the back of the net.

Sharp execution produced what proved to be the decisive goal with 25:40 left in the second half. Eaton floated the ball in front of the goal, and freshman Anthony Hamilton pounced and headed the ball toward the left corner.

“We came here thinking we were going to win,” Hill reviewed. “We didn’t expect to lose at all. That played to our downfall. Our play was not very good;  it was one of our worst games. We didn’t come out. We never showed up.

“This was my first loss to Hunt. I can always do better. We all should have done better.”

Added Mizelle: “We got outplayed. We had a lack of effort and got beat to every 50-50 ball most of the game. It’s tough to win that way. We got caught in a little rat poison tonight.”

Hunt head coach Harrison Lamm and assistant coach Warren Latata, in his seventh Hunt season, celebrated their first win against Fike.

“It feels good,” Lamm said. “We thought this could be the year. This was a good game for us to get back to winning ways. We felt like we were competitive with our personnel against theirs. Across the board, they were outplayed.

“I told the boys to start with intensity, apply pressure early and often, and smother them defensively where they make a mistake. We did our best to counter their playing style.”

Doll emphasized defeating Fike for the first time in eight years “feels pretty good.”

“We played hard until the last minute,” he expressed. “(The defense) played solid and so did the offense. The offense probably played its best game all year.”

The Warriors still owned the two-goal lead when Lamm decided to substitute a handful of players with some two minutes left.

“I was comfortable with the decision,” Doll responded. “A lot of our guys were tired and cramping up. It was probably the right thing to do to bring in some fresh players.”

Explained Lamm: “”I saw (Fike) had subbed, and I wanted to give some of our guys playing time. We fell asleep the last two minutes, but we still held up the result. But if they had tied the score …”

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