Postgame interview with Andrew Parker of Rising Sun "Golazo" is a slang term particularly popular with Spanish speaking fans and defined by the Urban Dictionary as an "awesomely amazing goal." It's a fitting word to describe the go-ahead goal Andrew Parker scored on Senior Night in Rising Sun's 3-2 triumph over visiting North East in a game with a great deal at stake. Parker expertly struck a free kick with the outside of his right foot from 30 yards away, rocketing a laser shot into the net in the 29th minute to put the Tigers ahead for good. "I tried to hit it right in the middle, but I looked up and saw the wall on the right side so I just saw the whole goal open so I took a swing at it and put my head down," Parker said.
Parker also set up the Tigers' first goal less than eight minutes after Connor Rowe had given the Indians a 1-0 edge in the fourth minute. Parker dribbled down toward the end line on the right side before crossing the ball into the goalmouth where Demetri Smith was there to knock it in. "I was bringing it down and just looked up and crossed it," said Parker. "It got in the middle and he just put it in." Micah Thomas extended the Tigers' lead to 3-1 in the fifth minute of the second half before North East responded about six minutes later on a Marcus French header. Rising Sun limited the Indians' stood opportunities over the final 29 minutes to lock down the critical victory. "It means everything, especially North East," Parker said. "It was the county sweep and we're rivals. It meant a lot." Rising Sun will enter the postseason on a hot streak. "We're playing pretty well.," said Parker. "We have a four-game winning streak so it's really good we're going into the playoffs on a winning streak. We're playing better and better each game but we can improve." Tigers' coach Ken Ulrich agrees with his senior midfielder. "We're playing better soccer," said Ulrich. "I think we can play better. I wouldn't say it was our best soccer. I think we have the potential to play much better soccer.And, yes, this is a good time to kind of start improving. And I've seen less of the mistakes that we've made before. This is a good time for that to happen." Rising Sun nearly scored in the third minute but the North East defense cleared the ball off the line on two occasions. Less than two minutes later, the speedy Rowe struck to put the visitors ahead. "I don't think I ever panicked," Ulrich said. "I was upset by that first goal but I never panicked. I knew that we have the kind of team that can control the ball. I think possession-wise, we did control the ball pretty good…But I think we had several opportunities. We pushed their goalie quite a bit." Under Ulrich, the Tigers have ruled the county. "Eight years and we've lost [to two] county schools," Ulrich said. "We lost twice to Elkton last year and we lost to Perryville when they had the three studs. They're the only games we've lost in the county. That's a big thing. This game was important to us. We set some goals. Basically we won out the county, this gives us the division championship, and it also gives us home field advantage for playoffs. So there were three big things that why it was important to us. Plus it was Senior Night so that's number four." Comments are closed.
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