Merced, Golden Valley settle for soccer draw again

Bart McAfee has seen it before.

The Merced High School boys soccer coach has watched his team come out strong in the first half only to disappear in the second half.

The Bears spent most of the second half chasing Golden Valley and were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie Tuesday night at Veterans Stadium. The teams played to a scoreless draw in their first matchup Sept. 26.

“That’s how we play every second half,” said McAfee, whose team sits in third place in the Central California Conference with a 3-4-3 record and 12 points after the first two rounds of play. “We came out and didn’t play like we did the first half. Honestly, I don’t know what it is.”

The Bears (8-5-6 overall) are one point ahead of Golden Valley (8-3-6, 2-3-5) with five matches left.

Merced sprinted to the lead early as Alfred Flores passed to a wide-open Axel Ramirez in front of the goal for an easy goal in the second minute.

“He just passed to me, I saw the goalie and just kicked it in,” Ramirez said. “It just happened fast.”

Giving up early goals has become a trend for Golden Valley.

“The second half was definitely our better half,” Cougars coach Lance Eber said. “We unfortunately have given up goals in the first couple minutes of matches a couple times. The last two games we’ve given up goals in the first couple minutes, and five minutes into the game we have our chins on our chest, pouting about it.”

The Bears had opportunities to extend their lead but couldn’t find the back of the net. Ramirez booted the ball off the crossbar in the 23rd minute. Adrian Lomeli did the same in the 49th minute on a shot Golden Valley goalie Austin Vang could only watch and hope was too high.

Merced had a hard time mounting a threat in the second half.

“We’re just not aggressive,” McAfee said. “We’re not scoring goals when we need to. We did the same thing against Pitman. We were up 1-0 in that game at halftime and lost (2-1).”

Meanwhile, the Cougars started knocking on the door early in the second half as Cruz Melgarejo found Nick Guzman in front of the goal, but Guzman’s shot was off target.

Two minutes later, Melgarejo fired a shot that was just right of the goal.

In the 54th minute, Golden Valley was awarded a penalty kick when Lomeli was whistled for a hand ball in the box on a ball that glanced off a teammate.

Cougars senior Alex Garcia scored easily on the penalty kick with a shot into the left corner as Merced goalie Saad Sohail guessed right.

Neither team seriously threatened to score the rest of the way.

The draw is always easier on the team that comes from behind. The Cougars have six ties in 10 conference matches.

The tie wasn’t as easy to stomach for Merced.

“Knowing we would have won if we played like we did in the first half is tough,” Ramirez said. “We came out in the second half and gave it away.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Merced, Golden Valley settle for soccer draw again."