Packers net historic win
Published 10:05 pm Thursday, September 6, 2012
With a whole lot of skill and a little bit of luck, the Packers finally beat the Rochester Mayo boys soccer team for the first time in school history in Art Hass Stadium Thursday.
Austin won 2-0 and both of its goals came from a sophomore who is gaining confidence with every game.
Roel Torres made some early noise when took a pass from his older brother, Francisco Torres, and bent in a 30-yarder past a handful of Mayo defenders and their goalie to put Austin up 1-0. In the 53rd minute, Roel Torres took a rebound off a Jake Hagen-Erickson shot and knocked in a goal that bounced into the net off the crossbar to make it 2-0.
Roel Torres, who now has five goals for the Packers (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big Nine), said he didn’t have time to think on his bender, which was one of the more impressive goals of the season so far.
“I just got lucky. I took it from my brother and just shot it,” he said. “(Once went up 2-0) we kept our cool and we didn’t let (Mayo) get in our heads.”
Francisco Torres has been playing varsity soccer since he was an eighth grader and to finally beat the Spartans (3-2 overall, 1-1 Big Nine) was a great thing.
Having his younger brother score two goals in the win made it even sweeter.
“It’s awesome to see him do that that and he’s a great player,” Francisco Torres said. “This was a great game and to finally beat them is a great feeling. We all came together and we made it happen. We beat Mayo.”
Austin keeper Collin Weisert may have had flashbacks to high school basketball season as Mayo sent a flurry of high kicks at him. Weisert was aggressive at the net as he finished with 13 saves to pick up his second shutout of the season.
The closest call for the Spartans came with 57 seconds left in the first half when Mayo fired a header that went off the post after a tip by Weisert. The ball nearly rolled into the net, but Weisert dove on it to stop it.
“I got lucky and I was scared on that one,” Weisert said. “It was a physical game out there and I’ve been wanting to beat Mayo ever since we tied them last season.”
Austin’s historic win was almost stopped in the first half as lightning put the game in a 30-minute delay with six minutes left in the half. If the game had reached half time, the final score would’ve been official in case of a cancellation, but instead Austin head coach Jens Levisen had to sweat it out.
“You’re thinking ‘don’t call it now,’” Levisen said. “You only need a half and if you play that much and you’re up, you don’t want the game to be called. I was a little nervous and I was sitting on my phone looking at the radar.”
There’s still a lot of season left for the Packers, who had their highest finish in the Big Nine in school history when they took second last year. But beating the defending Big Nine champs is a good way to garner some early momentum.
“This gives us a lot of confidence as to where we’re at,” Levisen said. “Even with the win, we know there’s things we need to improve on but to do this against last year’s Big Nine champ really says ‘we’re Austin and we’re here.’”
Austin finished with 12 shots on goal in the win.