Spartans fall short to Williamsburg

SOLON — Williamsburg Raiders defeated the Solon Spartans in a fan crazed conference match on April 8. The Raiders left victorious with a 5-2 win.

Five goals, not including the one point the Raiders shot in their own goal, giving Solon a freebie and making half of the team’s points.

Williamsburg started the match strong offensively. The game was fast paced, and at first, it seemed like it was going to be an even battle. The first three shots on goal came from the Raiders and they led the game 1-0, ten minutes into the half.

The first two scores went to Williamsburg except one was in their own goal for a point to the Spartans.

A minute later, Solon got their own by junior Rene Meza and assisted by Ryan Locke. In the first half, Solon’s defense was working overtime. The team’s goalkeeper got plenty of touches on the ball — at least four stops, but at the end of the first half, hope remained for the Spartans. The game was tied 2-2.

It was in the second half that the fans began to get riled up. The fans urged the refs to make calls or administer cards, but they also encouraged the Spartans to stay motivated and keep taking shots at goal.

“Keep fighting Solon,” a fan yelled.

But halfway through the second half, there were no new scores for Solon, even after many attempts in goal.

With almost ten minutes left in the half. Williamsburg was up by two. Junior Tucker Spencer shared his takeaway on the end of the match, “I think we all fought hard. There’s a lot of good moments we had, a lot of times we controlled the ball, just fell apart at the end.”

Solon tried time and time again to land one in the goal, but proved to be unsuccessful as a powerful boot flew past the side of the goal.

A fan yelled, “hold your heads high,” after Williamsburg nailed a goal into the top left corner. “I think there’s a lot of areas we need to improve, but I think from the beginning of the season we’ve done a lot better at controlling the ball, playing the ball, even scoring,” Spence said.