Postgame interview with Jackson Sopa The Rising Sun boys soccer team accomplished two goals Wednesday afternoon. Both figuratively and literally. The Tigers tallied twice in a 2-1 triumph over visiting Harford Tech. And while achieving their main objective of emerging with a victory, the Tigers also attained a slightly secondary aspiration – playing better than they had in the two previous games. "We definitely wanted to come into this game hard and we wanted to prove ourselves and show we really can play better," said goalscorer Jackson Sopa. "And I think we proved that."
Ivan Herrera put Rising Sun in front off a Sopa assist in the 17th minute. Thirteen minutes later, Sopa unleashed a shot from long range that curled into the net. "I got the ball laid back off to me and I saw the goalie off his line," Sopa said. "I thought, 'Why not? Why not have a shot?' No one was pressuring me so I just ripped it." It was the junior's seventh goal of the season, five coming on shots from distance and two from the penalty spot. "I take my chances. I shoot a lot," said Sopa. "I practice my shooting a lot so and I take my chances. I've been pretty lucky so far this season." The Cobras countered by converting a penalty kick with a minute left in the first half. It was the fourth penalty kick chance Rising Sun has surrendered in its last three contests. "We must hold the record for most number of penalties and the number of penalty kicks we give them in the last five minutes of the game or last five minutes of the half," Rising Sun coach Ken Ulrich said. "I think it has to do with the intensity we play at and I don't think we mean to do it. They play hard. It's getting close to the end and they don't want to give anything up so they play a little harder and sometimes that comes off as a penalty. I told them it was like the old Hee-Haw joke, If we didn't have bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all." Rising Sun goalie Ethan Greene made three saves behind a rugged defense. "We like a physical style of play," Sopa said. "I think we thrive on that. We definitely played hard. It was a very physical game." It was marked improvement from a narrow win over Perryville and loss to Edgewood. "A much better performance," Ulrich said. "We played hard. We played like we wanted to play. Some of the things we talked about were playing a little more physical, playing a little quicker to the ball, and moving the ball. We knew they were a good team. We knew they had a couple of fast guys up top so I think we did a really good job of trying to contain that and move the ball down against their defense." Comments are closed.
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