Burnet boys soccer loses to Northeast, Jarrell

CAPTION: Burnet junior Marco Campos-Huerta has an impressive scoring streak, which forces opponents to look for him. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Burnet High School boys soccer team lost to Austin Northeast 4-1 Feb. 13 and Jarrell 2-1 Feb. 10 in District 25-4A play.

Head coach Benjamin Boorman summed up the two matches.

“We could not put the ball in the net when we needed to,” he said. “It seems as if the only person right now, who wants to score is Marco Campos-Huerta.”

Junior Campos-Huerta scored on a free kick against Northeast (9-4-2, 5-0-1) and scored the lone goal against Jarrell, which means he has scored in every district match so far this season.

“Every single game Marco seems to score one goal,” Boorman said. “And that’s all we get. He hit the ball so hard that it struck the right post, went all the way over and hit the left post, hit the ground, then hit the top bar and went in from 30 yards out. The goal keeper was running to the right, running to the left to make it to the post. He flung himself on the ground. He had three guys on their team trying to get the ball. It was like pinball. It finally went in. It was amazing. He has the capacity for the remarkable. He’s just kind of a magic kid.”

Part of the challenge for the Bulldogs (3-9-3, 2-3-2) is not having a complete varsity roster because of sickness or injuries.

“We had our chances just like the last time (against Jarrell),” Boorman said. “We should have scored first with a point blank shot right in front of the goalkeeper. It bounced to (us) after a free kick and we didn’t put it in, whereas they got one, and they got a first time touch right across the top of the box and hit it. It’s just luck — they got it perfectly in the upper 90 (the point where the cross bar meets the post). You do that 10 times, you’d only hit it once. And then they got the exact same play as we got, a corner kick, that just ends up landing right at their feet. And they finished and we didn’t.”

Burnet and Northeast played to a 1-1 tie in the first half then the Raiders scored.

“We went into that game dehydrated and tired,” the coach said. “Boys hadn’t been at school, they’d just been showing up to practices if they could, and it just showed. We played that team that, in my opinion, was probably better skilled, but we were just as athletic, and we were able to keep up. We were trying to take chances and the game was 2-1 for the longest time. And then I had to start putting in subs, and as soon as I did, because the guys were out of juice, they scored and they got one in the last three or our minutes to make it 4-1. But that’s really not how our team is and how the game is and the teams are much more level than they think.”

As he thought back to the previous week, Boorman continued.

“We’re just getting unlucky,” he said. “We have a player out for two weeks with a groan injury, who’s my best defender. Then you have seven guys with the flu. It’s a fluke, it’s just bad luck, but we’re still in it.”

Burnet has a bye Tuesday, Feb. 17, then travels to play Austin LBJ (7-2-1, 6-1) Saturday, Feb. 21, with the junior varsity taking the field at 9 a.m. and the varsity at 10:45 a.m.

CAPTON: Burnet junior Ricardo Flores keeps control of the ball as freshman Alvaro Rodriguez makes himself available for a pass during the loss to Austin Northeast. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro