Less than 24 hours removed from a devastating penalty shootout loss to Black Hills in its league opener, the Rochester boys soccer team came back to defeat Olympic, 3-2, Saturday afternoon, thanks to a brace from Erik Vasquez-Valentine.
The Warriors got off to a hot start, scoring goals in the 27th and 34th minutes to take a quick 2-0 lead. But they saw that lead erased in the blink of an eye, with the Trojans’ Noah Leroy scoring a goal on a penalty kick in stoppage time of the first half, and four minutes in to the second half, Jaime Magana scoring to draw level at 2-2.
Eduardo Francisco scored Rochester’s first goal, while Vasquez-Valentine netted the second.
After 20 more minutes of stalemate, Vasquez-Valentine came up clutch and found the back of the net for the second time, scoring in the 65th minute to give Rochester a 3-2 lead. The Warriors held on to bounce back from defeat Friday.
“It was a nice turnaround from yesterday’s loss,” Warriors coach Matt Ashton said. “It was nice to be able to finish this game in regulation. It was a lot of hard work by everyone.”
The Warriors will look to keep it going against W.F. West on the road Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
