Raider soccer team downs Loganville

“I was thrilled with the result; the team put forward one of their best efforts of the season against them,” said head coach Trevor Mangan.

Madison County was down 1-0 at halftime after one of their midfielders was able to get on the end of a through ball and finish.

The Raiders tied the game at 1-1 off of a Daniel Walker throw-in. Forrest Gaskin flicked the ball on towards the goal and Joey Sandres headed it in for his eleventh goal of the season.

But Madison County fell behind 2-1 a few minutes later when the Raiders did not track a defender who came forward.

“As a team, we had made some adjustments at halftime, telling our forwards to hold the ball up before playing runners through,” said Mangan. “These adjustments led to both of our goals in the second part of the half.”

On the first goal, Oliver Espinoza held the ball up and then played a ball over the top for Sandres, who did a great job of recognizing that their goalie was way off of his line and hitting the ball over him.

For the game-winner, Espinoza settled a punt from Sebastian Jones, Madison County’s goalkeeper, and then released Tanner Jordan through on goal. Jordan finished well to get the winning goal.

“The team as a whole had a great game,” said Mangan. “Sebastian made a number of big saves in goal for us, and the back line of Ereck Larkins, Jorge Perez, Jake Lampe, and Daniel Walker played well.”

Mangan said he’s proud of how his 4-4-1 squad has played so far this season.

“We’ve had our fair share of ups and downs,” the coach said. “We had a couple of games — such as Flowery Branch and Clarke Central — where I thought we could have pulled out victories, but we’ve beaten the teams that we were supposed to beat and have played some very tough opponents very close.”

Madison County won’t hit the field again until Apalachee visits April 10.

“We’re looking to finish strong down the stretch,” said Mangan. “We have five winnable games up ahead and could finish with a winning record in region, which would be a huge accomplishment for our program. We’d also have an outside chance at the state playoffs if that happened.”