By Dean Adi/sports editor
Injuries, emotions and revenge summed up the day after Tejas FC earned the SE intramural soccer championship April 23.
Claire Weeden/The Collegian
Even the defending champions, the Colts, predicted Tejas FC winning it all after losing to them in the semifinals 11-3.
“They will win it because they are so much better than these other teams,” Colts player Luis Garcia said after his team’s loss.
Almost everyone on Tejas FC contributed to the 11 goals that led the team to the finals including the goalie Jonathan Chavez, scoring on a foul shot, closing out the game.
Chavez was a player for the Colts last year when they won the title but left the team to join Tejas FC before this season started. He said eliminating his former team was bittersweet because he is still friends with several of them but was happy to continue in the playoffs.
Adam Mwakikoti and the Power Rangers defeated the Oh Yeahs 4-2 in the other semifinal match.
Mwakikoti’s passion was apparent, being extremely vocal with his teammates throughout the course of the game, both in frustration and excitement.
Mwakikoti also wasn’t happy with the amount of time his team had before the finals.
“We’re only getting 15 minutes to rest before we play what I feel is an even-matched team,” he said. “But we’re going to give it all we got. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’re the Power Rangers, so we just got to step it up.”
Tejas FC player Fernando Arreguin, who played with a torn knee ligament, disagreed that his team had an unfair rest advantage for the simple fact that SE intramural soccer games consist of 25-minute halves.
“We all play 45-minute halves in real games, so a 15-minute break doesn’t make a difference,” he said. “Actually, it favors them more because we’re cold. They’re still hot.”
Five minutes into the championship game, Mwakikoti was down with a hamstring injury after a failed goal attempt. The Power Rangers didn’t seem to pick up much momentum after that.
Meanwhile, Tejas FC continued doing what it has done all season: dominate.
Tejas FC’s Franky Figueroa started the trend making the first goal of the game.
Donovan Castellano of the Power Rangers gave all that he could despite the constant miscues of his fellow teammates, but his two goals weren’t enough to outscore his opponents.
Up 6-2 in the second half of the game, Tejas FC sealed the deal. Challenging Power Rangers goalie Mike Miller in a back-to-back attack, Alex Alvarado head-butted the ball into the goal after Miller blocked Arreguin’s first attempt for the most exciting play of the game.
As the game concluded, Mwakikoti scored within the last minutes of the game, but Tejas FC claimed victory, winning 9-3.
“My hat goes off to our team,” Mwakikoti said after the loss. “We all worked really hard this season. It was kind of tough playing back to back. I know that hurt us a little bit. I pulled my ham in the first five minutes, and I really couldn’t get into it after that, but I think we can hang our heads high. We all gave it our best shot.”
Chavez was all smiles after the game, winning the title for the second year in a row with his second team.
“It feels good,” he said. “We came prepared, and we played hard.”
SE intramural assistant Ian Ussery was happy with the season overall.
“It was a good turnout,” he said. “Good competition. Fun time had by all.”
First-place winners all received brand new Wilson soccer balls and will have their picture placed in the hall outside the gym as SE soccer intramural champions.
