Raiders sweep Spartans on the pitch

The Union Spartans paid Spivey’s Corner a visit Wednesday evening, dueling it out on the soccer pitch with Midway in a non-conference inner-county rivalry showdown. The Raiders, who won the first battle between the two schools 10-2, were looking for a season sweep. Midway achieved that goal when all was said and done as the Raiders garnered a mirroring 10-2 victory.

Midway certainly got the start they were looking for, getting a quick strike on a throw-in off a header by Luis Florido with 36:55 still on the clock. Just a few minutes later, Florido struck again on a PK straight away from the net with 33:04 still to go, putting the Raiders up 2-0.

Midway kept a constant surge on the offensive, getting to just about every loose ball first to continuously keep the ball deep in the Union defensive zone.

The Raiders nearly tallied another goal at the 31:00 mark but the shot missed off the left goal post and rolled out of bounds.

Then at the 28:38 mark, they did add to their lead when Luke McCray broke free and put a shot past the Spartans’ goalkeeper to make it 3-0.

After that, the Raiders onslaught slowed down and the clock wound below 20:00 with the score sitting at 3-0.

Midway, though not finding any goals, continued to apply relentless pressure. Time after time, crashes on goal and corner kicks were seen flying but the Raiders couldn’t turn them into points. It wasn’t until 8:06 left in the half before they found the back of the net again, this time on a goal by Max Florido, to put the home team up 4-0.

After that, Union got a rare runout back the other way and was able to get a goal of their own off the foot of Ronnie Castro to make it 4-1

Midway, though, fired right back just a few seconds later. For this goal, McCray sent a crossing pass to Jayden Espino-Diaz, who converted the score with 48.6 left to put the halftime score at 5-1.

Right out of the gate in the second half, Union tallied a quick goal, again off the foot of Castro, just seconds into the second half.

Just a few minutes later, though, the Raiders countered. With 36:00 left in the game, McCray sent a corner kick into a scrum in front of the net where the ball ricocheted into the goal off the leg of a Spartans defender, making it 6-2. Then, just one minute later, Espino-Diaz flushed home another score to push the lead to 7-2 with 35:00 to go.

The game gradually got out of hand as Max Florido struck again with 29:11 to go, making the score now 8-2 and creeping closer toward the mercy rule threshold.

It never did quite get that bad, though, but the Raiders continued to add goals. With 18:38 left, Alexis Lopez got in on the act, poking in a free ball down around the net to put the tally at 9-2.

Down the stretch, the Raiders offense converted one final time when Luis Florido got the hat trick. With 11:17 left, he connected on his third goal of the game and propelled Midway to the 10-2 victory.

With the win, Midway is now 7-2 on the season. They will hit the field again on Monday, hosting Lakewood. The Spartans fall to 1-7 overall and will travel to Seventy-First Tuesday.