The Greeley West boys soccer team had a great opening to the new 2024 season with a 9-2 victory against Fort Morgan high school last Saturday. Tonight, they will try to keep that momentum going in a match against Greeley Central that starts at 6 p.m.
The boys started the first half against Fort Morgan hot, leading with the first two goals of the game. The Spartans for the rest of the game brought seven more goals in the second half and only conceded two.
Head coach Jorge Cabral said that this team compared started the season with a better mindset than last year’s squad. “I feel like on Saturday we had our players really connect,” Cabral said. “I feel like we really connected as a team. As long as we continue that up I think we can have more possibilities to make a successful season,” Cabral stated.
The Spartans had a rough season last year finishing 2-13, where goals were hard to come by. In fact, the 9 goals that West scored on Saturday eclipsed last year’s season total.
West doesn’t expect to score 9 goals against the Wildcats tonight, but they are encouraged by the offensive uptick this season. It’s part of the team wanting to forget about last season and turn a new leaf. Senior Isaac De La Paz stated that the team had trust in each other and they were in full confidence in each other. “The team did change. I just felt like we were more confident. We weren’t putting each other down, our heads were up the whole game, we were just connecting more as a whole team,” De La Paz mentioned.
As the Spartans move forward, Senior, Alonso Villanueva voiced his mind that since the team has moved up to a higher division they look like a stronger team and are able to move far this season. “We may still have some selfish players, we’re still connecting as a team, especially up top,” said Villanueva.
Cabral wants to forget about last year and work towards a better season this year. “The new assistant varsity coach and I were talking about this season. ‘All the talent’s there, now we got to get rid of the attitude, play as a team and we’ll make something happen’,” said Cabral.
