Gallery • 10 Photos

Santiago Robles

Gathering before the start of the game.

After their first preseason 2-0 victory over Willow Glen High School on Wednesday, November 25th, Lincoln’s boys varsity team were set to start the Homestead Christmas Cup playing their first game on Saturday, December 5th, at Homestead. Confident after their previous performance, as well as the school’s summer league season going undefeated, the Lincoln boys were eager to start the tournament with a win, however they were completely shocked to see that they weren’t getting anywhere.

Their opponent, host of the tournament, Homestead, surprised Lincoln players and coach, completely dominating at the start of the game and soon scoring within 15 minutes from an amazing play that built its way up from the back with amazing passes leaving Homestead’s #7 with an open shot on Lincoln’s goal. It looked awful for the Lions throughout the first half, having no connection within the players, no formation, lack of effort, and mentally shut down. Lincoln played their first half very physically causing many fouls and later receiving bookings. Homestead was attacking the entire half, however, Julian, Lincoln’s goalkeeper, helped the Lions stay in the game with amazing blocks but it wasn’t good enough to stop Homestead scoring 30 minutes into the game when one of their players was left wide open in the back post having a clear shot on goal making it 2-0 for the Mustangs. Although the Lions had an awful start, they tried to keep their heads up but soon had their hopes crushed when Homestead was awarded a penalty after a handball, giving the home team their third goal.

Lincoln’s first half was disastrous conceding 4 goals and not even creating a single opportunity to score. The Lions were losing support from the parents who were making negative comments about the future of the Lions’ high school varsity team. Second half, however, was more entertaining after the Lions regrouped during halftime listening to Coach Juan and Coach Jim and each other, they seemed to be playing better. Lincoln created opportunities to score and connected more passes however were unlucky to get a goal in.

Both teams were playing hard, having the parents and crowd into the game, when suddenly Homestead created a counterattack from a Lincoln mistake leaving #8 the opportunity to make it 5-0. The game ended in another Homestead counterattack where the referee blew the whistle stopping the possibility of another goal and ending the humiliating game for the Lions.

Although they had a terrible start to the tournament, the boys were looking forward to getting positive results in yesterday’s game against Archbishop Mitty but were yet again disappointed in the final score. During the defeat, Lincoln had a better performance than last Saturday, dominating most of the game, creating chances of goal which later got the only goal for Lincoln after a great set up, leaving Lincoln’s #7 the opportunity to finish.