By Bethany Peterson/reporter
Last Minute, New Era and the TCC Wildcats are tied for first place after the second week of the NW Campus three-week soccer league.
New Era beat Choco-Taco Uno 3-2 Oct. 15. Ivan Basco scored all three of New Era’s goals in the first half. His first goal was a penalty kick and his third a breakaway.
An unexpected intermission was needed to recover the game ball from under a treadmill after it jammed the machine and stopped the runner in mid-stride.
Choco-Taco Uno rallied during the second half. Jesus Trejo scored twice, putting Choco-Taco Uno within one goal of tying the game with only a minute left to play. But its energetic drive failed to score.
Last Minute won its Oct. 15 game against Choco-Taco Dos 6-1. Last Minute’s Arthuro Castro scored first, and Trejo answered with Choco-Taco Dos’s only goal. Matias Zeita scored a second goal for Last Minute before halftime.
Alan Reyes opened the second half with a third goal for Last Minute. The game’s final three goals all belonged to Last Minute player Randal McClanahan, who switched from goalkeeper in the first half to forward in the second. His last goal, a sly, behind-the-back pass into the net, ended the game.
Neither the Killer Kleats nor the Sidekicks had enough players to start their Oct. 15 game, resulting in a double forfeit and both teams receiving a loss of point.
On Oct. 13, the TCC Wildcats defeated Quicksilver 4-2, and Last Minute beat Ramrod 4-3. Team Awesome forfeited to Choco-Taco Dos.
No competitive games were played Oct. 14. The Sidekicks forfeited to Choco-Taco Uno, and Team Awesome forfeited to Ramrod. The Hot Shots-CD Olympia match was a double forfeit.
The high number of forfeits caused by teams lacking enough players to start games surprised Joshua Tarbay, the NW intramural director.
“Next time I’ll probably make 10 teams with 12 players each,” he said.
In the current league, the 12 teams average eight players each.
Smaller team sizes worked well for the NW Campus soccer tournaments last year, the base for determining team size for the league.
Tarbay said that during the tournaments, teams were probably more proactive about getting enough players to the games because two forfeits would eliminate a team.
In the three-week league, teams have more chances to make up the points lost by forfeit.
