W.F. West senior midfielder Carlos Hernandez and senior forward Antheny Mendez-Leal each recorded a hat trick to help the Bearcats overpower Rochester, 8-2, in a non-league battle of unbeatens at home Tuesday.
W.F. West scored early and often, starting with Mendez-Leal’s opening goal in the first 24 seconds of play, eventually building to a 7-1 halftime lead.
“When they came out in the first 24 seconds with that goal, it kind of shell-shocked us,” Rochester coach Matt Ashton said. “(W.F. West) came ready to play.”
The Warriors actually responded quickly from that first goal, with Erik Vasquez-Valentine answering back with a goal of his own in the 9th minute to tie it up. But the Bearcats came right back with Hernandez’ first goal in the 16th minute, which opened the floodgates and started a 6-0 run.
Domain Hernandez scored five minutes later in the 21st minute with a goal, followed by Carlos Hernandez’ second goal in the 27th minute and Mendez-Leal’s second goal in the 31st minute. W.F. West tacked on two more before the half, first by Jacob Moeckel in the 34th minute and Mendez-Leal’s third goal in the final five minutes of the half.
Rochester was able to get one final goal, this time from junior Alexis Castillo-Corona in the 51st minute. W.F. West closed out the scoring with Carlos Hernandez’ hat trick in the 66th minute.
“I was very happy in the second half,” Ashton said. “We made some adjustments and finished 1-1 in the second half. We were a little slow on passing. We were slower than W.F. West… If we can take what we learned and use that knowledge, hopefully we’ll have a better outcome on Friday.”
Rochester falls to 2-1-1 and hosts Aberdeen on Friday. W.F. West improves to 2-0-1 and heads to Centralia on Friday.
