A second-half offensive onslaught led San Marcos boys soccer to a 7-2 victory over San Luis Obispo High on Thursday at Warkentin Stadium.
After heading into the break in a one-score contest, the Royals ripped off five goals in the second half en route to the win.
“San Luis Obispo is a strong team, they are really athletic, really fast and tested us in a lot of ways,” San Marcos coach Paul McLean said. “Even as we scored a bunch of goals, they were still pressing and working.”
The first 10 minutes were defense-heavy, as neither team could work into or even near the box thanks to strong play from the respective back lines.
That changed in the 16th minute when San Luis Obispo lined up for a free kick from outside the box.
They opted to take the shot on goal from there, and San Marcos goalkeeper Adolfo Ramirez blocked the shot. However, it ricocheted right to the foot of Ian Cabrinha, who finished it off to take a 1-0 lead.
After some more back-and-forth play, the Royals caught a break.
In the 24th minute, the San Luis Obispo goalkeeper was called for a violation after holding onto the ball for too long, giving San Marcos a penalty kick.
Favian Rosales lined up for the shot and buried it into the bottom left corner to even the score up.
Each team threatened to score for the following 15 minutes, but the score remained at 1-1 throughout the offensive chargers.
However, on the final play before halftime, San Marcos defender Luis Botello lined up for a free kick about 15 yards out from the box.
He went for the goal, knocking the shot off the top post. However, forward Cash Evers was there to get a piece of the ball, dribbling it towards a wide-open Julian Santana, who finished off the go-ahead goal.
With that impressive goal, the Royals led 2-1 at halftime.
San Marcos then came out of the break firing, as Ricky Olivo sent a perfect cross into Rosales, who was waiting by himself in the box. Rosales finished it off with his second goal of the night, giving the Royals a 3-1 lead in the 42nd minute.
That goal sparked the San Marcos offense, more specifically Olivo.
In the 46th minute, Olivo, a freshman, received a pass from Robert Rosales just outside the left side of the box and the San Luis Obispo goalkeeper creeped out to contest.
Olivo took advantage, going into a slide and sending the ball into the open net to give his team a 4-1 lead.
Just eight minutes later, Olivo nearly replicated the exact same sliding goal, dropping into a slide after the goalkeeper came out to defend and guiding the ball into the back of the net.
“What’s insane is that [Olivio] is a freshman and no one can match his work rate,” McLean said.
“Those were hard finishes. Technically speaking, those were very challenging balls to finish.
With the San Marcos lead now at 5-1, Olivo wasn’t done yet.
The freshman standout secured the hat trick in the 65th minute after he followed up a blocked shot by Ryder Hazard.
“[Olivo] used his speed and balance to tuck those balls away,” McLean said.
The Tigers managed to score one more goal in the 72nd minute to cut the lead to 6-2, but it was far too little, far too late.
For good measure, San Marcos’ Kevin Sanchez punched in the final goal of the night in the 78th minute to clinch the 7-2 victory.
“We talked about moving the ball faster and we did that and it showed some great results,” McLean said of his offensive attack. “I was impressed but I would say we had a lot to work on too.”
As for the defense, the Royals consistently shut off the San Luis Obispo attack before it could get into the box.
“[The back line] did a good job and the players that came in did a good job following up,” McLean said.
The Royals (1-0-1) will take on Newbury Park on the road on Monday.
“I am really thankful that we have all of our preseason games against strong teams, which will be really, really good for us to test some things out,” McLean said. “I’m hopeful, we have a lot of good things going.”