Legacy boys soccer coach Chris Bryant is not sure how much his heart can take with the nailbiters his team has been playing.
Tuesday night against Odessa Permian was no exception.
After the teams played a scoreless regulation and the Rebels survived constant pressure by the Panthers, the match went to a shootout. And it wasn’t until LHS goalkeeper Jason Maltos made the critical save on Permian’s fifth shooter that the Rebels could celebrate a 5-4 shootout victory.
Tied at 4-4 in the shootout, Bronson Bejarano converted to give his Rebels the lead. Permian’s fifth shooter had a chance to extend the shootout but Maltos, who started the match and played the first half, in goal, dove to make a stop and give the Rebels the thrilling victory.
“I got it when it counted,” said Maltos about his save. “The first one messed me up, but the others. I was getting there and then I stuck with that last one and I had it.”
The play of both Maltos and then Christopher Moreno in goal for the second half of regulation kept the Rebels (7-6-1, 3-2-1-1, 12 points in District 2-6A) in the match as the Panthers (11-8-1, 1-3-1-2, 7 points) had several scoring opportunities but were either denied by the goalkeepers or just missed on their shots. Moreno made a couple of highlight saves to keep the Panthers off the board.
“In regulation, they put it to us,” Bryant said. “Permian is a good team. They controlled a lot of things, so I give it to Permian to what they did tonight.”
Bryant also had as much high praise for his goalkeepers.
“Both goalkeepers are awesome,” Bryant said. “You can be able to look at both of them and be able to say that both of them would be goalkeepers of the year for this district. They are very good goalkeepers and it’s a very hard for me to make a decision on who should get to play all the time. That’s a good thing to have, but at the same time, it’s a bad thing to have.”
Bryant said it was an equally tough decision to decide on who should be the goalkeeper in the shootout and went with his gut to play Maltos.
“When we played Frenship (on Feb. 3) and we went into (a shootout), I split them and I didn’t feel like we got into a routine,” Bryant said. “I made that decision at the end and it worked. Next time you might see Chris in there. It’s one of those situations that you want them to get enough repetitions where they start to feel comfortable. The fifth kicker came in, there’s lots of pressure on that and (Maltos) came up big for us.”
Maltos said his team’s defense continued to play well and that also kept his team in the match.
“The first five minutes of the first half was sloppy but then we picked it up. In the second half, we did pretty well. We just have to keep working on the offense, keep shooting and keep getting those opportunities to put it in.”
In addition to Bejarano, Alan Martinez, Landon Munoz, Enzo Vino Vica and Matthew Gutierrez converted in the shootout.
“To hit all five of your (shots) is tough to do,” Bryant said. “We’ve been practicing. That’s one thing that we really work on and when they put it back in district (play). We wanted to make sure we were ready on that side of things.”
With the shootout win and the two points, the Rebels move into sole possession of second place in the district standings after Frenship lost to league-leader Midland High, 1-0, on Tuesday night.
LHS will next take their three-match winning streak on road to San Angelo Central at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Follow Oscar on Twitter: @OLeRoy_MRT
