A two-goal performance by Jorge Rodriguez and a lockdown effort on defense allowed the Washington soccer team to blast past North Pitt 3-0 on Wednesday in a Eastern Plains Conference matchup.
The conference win was the second of the week for the Pam Pack (9-1-1, 2-0), who mercy-ruled Farmville Central before downing the Panthers.
“We’re very excited to be 2-0 (in the conference),” Washington coach Jimmy Kozuch said. “We’re in a new conference and we’re trying to start off strong. Each win is very important to us. North Pitt was a very good team and they came out and fought hard.”
Washington got off to a fast start as Rodriguez gave the Pam Pack a 1-0 lead within the first two minutes of the game on a newly installed corner kick play.
“It couldn’t have worked out any better. We had a really nice corner kick and we found our opening,” Kozuch said. “We scored on the exact same play against Farmville Central.”
Washington would stand pat on its 1-0 lead until early in the second quarter when Rodriguez struck from 35-yards out.
“He made a couple of quick moves and I saw that the goalie was off the line and I hollered out to him to shoot it,” Kozuch said. “He didn’t hesitate. He just ripped the shot and no one was expecting it. It was a perfectly struck shot. There wasn’t a goalie in the world that could have saved that one.”
The Pam Pack upped its lead to 3-0 midway through the second half when Sergio Higuera scored on a penalty kick.
“Christian Crompton got around a defender and was taking it into the box and the defender had no choice but to foul him,” Kozuch said. “They called the penalty shot and Sergio stepped up and wanted the kick and we gave it to him. He did a great job. Put it right in the bottom left corner.”
With the offense clicking, the defense was its usual brick wall self as it tallied its eighth shutout of the season.
“The defensive line is playing very strong,” Kozuch said. “We have four guys back there in Sergio Bolivar, who is a brute back there and has been marking off on the other team’s best players. Then our outside defenders, Holt McKeithan and Daniel Crozier are playing really strong. William Page, our last man back, has done a great job of getting anything that slips through.”
The Pack JV is also in the midst of a strong season as it topped J.H. Rose 4-0 on Tuesday to up its record to 8-0 on the year.