The Bears came into the Tuesday, March 12th match with a 1-1 Region 7 record and 6-3 overall and ranked #8 in Class AAAAAA and Alpharetta came in with 1-0 Region mark and 6-1 overall with its only loss to highly ranked Roswell squad.
The Bears controlled play most of the night with the Raiders playing very direct at most every opportunity. At the 13:25 mark of the first half Trey Rielly found Lucas Pegorer in the box on the left side of the net and Lucas found the back of the net; 1-0 Cambridge. The balance of the first was controlled by the Bears and ended 1-0 Bears.
The Raiders opened the second half with a new formation which presented a challenge to the Bears, and the Raiders found the back of the net on a corner kick back side; 1-1 at the 30:50 mark of the second half. The Bears controlled the match most of the balance of the second half and had several quality opportunities but could not find the back of the net.
The Raiders had one good opportunity to score in the last minute of the match but were turned away by our Back Line and Goalie. Regulation play ended in a 1-1 tie.
Since it was a Region match the squads moved to a 15 minute overtime period (no golden goal) and then PKs if no winner. The overtime period started with both squads probing the other for opportunities and the Raiders, off a corner kick back side, found the back of the net at the 7:00 mark; 2-1 Alpharetta.
Cambridge moved players around and began to press and attack, then at the 1:07 mark from a throw-in, Ethan Rose flicked the ball over the outstretched arms of the goalie to Jack Tindle at the back post who placed the ball in the back of the net; 2-2 and the overtime period ended with the score knotted at 2-2, so off to PKs.
The PKs format changed this season and you could tell neither the coaches or game officials were totally comfortable with the format. However in the end each squad took 12 PKs and Cambridge prevailed 9-8 for its 2 Region 7 win. Cambridge missed two PKs and had one blocked. Successful were Omar Dhrif (2), Christian Guzman, Ethan Rose, Nico Restrepo, Ben Barfield, Carter Johnson, Jack Tindle and Erik Holmen. Nic Sides blocked 3 PKs, back to back at the end of the match, and Alpharetta missed one off the left post.
Next up for the Bears is #5 ranked Pope High School, who come into the match with a 3-0 Region 7 record and 7-1-1 overall.
This game will also be Youth Soccer night and we encourage all kids from the local club teams to come out and support the Bears! Eighth grade and younger students get free admission with a paying adult when they wear their club kit and we will have a kid's penalty kick contest during halftime of both the Girl's and Boy's games with prizes awarded. We will also have one of our awesome sponsors, Neurosport, there to talk about proper stretching and post-game recovery. Come hear what the Bears are learning about sport science!
