by Gage Biery ‘20

Jesuit played neighborhood rival Rio on their home turf in one of their most important games of the season on Friday. It was very questionable about how Jesuit would start, but early in the game the team erased all previous doubts. Cole Barrett got the ball on the left flank near the sideline and dashed all the way into the box, where he delivered it to Chris Meyers. Meyers stabbed at the oncoming ball with his left foot and managed to get it around some Rio defenders where he continued the sequence, sliding the ball across to Zach Lozano, who put it home in straightforward fashion. The whole game was testy and physical, and it had a few small fights. Two of Rio’s players got yellow cards for excessive arguing with the ref, and Jesuit got a few yellow cards for either excessive fouling or engaging in a fight.

Half  Jesuit 1-Rio 0

The second half of the game continued to be scrappy, but high quality, with ball possession always fluctuating between the two teams, and neither team was guaranteed a safe win. Rio had some dangerously close chances and had an effort that ended up with the ball sliding right past the right post. Then in the 75th minute, Chris dribbled and kept the ball for a while through the midfield and he slowly made his way to the left side. When he couldn’t do it himself any longer, he passed it to Elijah Beverley nearby on the left side and he dribbled it up and slightly to the right until he targeted Brian Norris in the middle among a bunch of Rio defenders. Norris coolly lofted the ball one-time high over the keeper. At this point Jesuit had secured the win. Jesuit finished the game 2-0 over Rio Americano.