Offense ignites for Albert Lea soccer

By Nick Gerhardt | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Friday, September 5, 2008

The Albert Lea boys’ soccer team knew it was capable of putting up some numbers offensively, all it needed was to bury some goals — the Tigers did in a 3-0 win over Mankato West at Hammer Field Thursday night.

Albert Lea (2-2, 1-1) wanted to stretch the field in its attack against Mankato West (1-1-1, 0-1) but quickly found working the ball through the middle of the field would work just as well. Oscar Hernandez, inserted into the forward position, scored in the first five minutes on a shot from just outside the goal box to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Tyler Prihoda added to the lead in the 26th minute on an assist from Hernandez to put Albert Lea up 2-0 in the first half. Jairo Coronel added the third goal of the game 1:40 into the second half.

“We’ve been fighting to score goals this whole season,” Hernandez said. “We worked well as a team.”

Hernandez assisted on each goal of the game and coach Elia Romano was happy to see his playmakers step up.

“We really need Oscar and Prihoda going,” Romano said. “So those are great guys to get goals.”

Hernandez was able to set the tone for the team with his early goal as Tigers capitalized on their first quality chance.

“In the past we’ve had the pattern of missing our first few opportunities and that as a whole team responds and loses the belief that they can score,” Romano said. “This was kind of the opposite. After that we kind of jumped on them quick and didn’t really let off until the second half of the second half.”

Albert Lea outshot the Scarlets 8-4 in the first half even though the team worked away from its original game plan.

“We came in with the mindset that we wanted to switch the ball a lot and spread the field,” Romano said. “But the space was straight down the middle and that’s where we beat them and scored our goals. You have to respect a player that can recognize the defense’s weakness and exploit it.”

Albert Lea will host the Albert Lea Invite this Saturday at Hammer Field beginning at 10 a.m.