By JIM OTTS
Register Correspondent
WICHITA FALLS — The Gainesville Leopards ran into more trouble than they bargained for Friday, losing their District 9-4A soccer opener to the Wichita Falls Rider Raiders 4-0 while playing most of the second half without four starters.
“I had to pull four of my starters out within the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Gainesville Coach Pedro Encarnacion said. “The rest of the guys stepped up and played well against a very good Rider team, and now we just hope to heal up before Tuesday.”
Giovanni Carranza, Angel Carranza, Everardo Puente and Justin Espinosa, all midfielders, had to be replaced in the game.
Giovanni Carranza reinjured a foot that had been a problem before, Angel Carranza suffered a thigh injury, Puente has a hip flexor and Espinosa hurt his foot.
“Give those guys the weekend to heal and a day or two with Doc (Ben Melancon) and they will be back out there.” the Gainesville coach said.
Rider burst into the lead in the first minute with a lobbed cross into the middle of the pitch for a header goal.
“We settled down and played well after giving up that early goal,” Encarnacion said. “They did not score again until the last two minutes of the first half.”
That pre-intermission goal came on a well-struck blast from 25 yards out after Leopard defenders failed to clear a ball out of their penalty area.
Rider scored twice against the revised Leopard line-up after all the injuries.
“I am extremely proud of Noel Puente for the way he played,” Coach Encarnacion said. “We had to move him from forward back into the midfield and he played offense, dropped back to defend, and pretty much had to cover for us all over the pitch.”
Encarnacion also had high praise for defenders Dale Smith and Victor Monroy for their efforts.
“Really, everyone stepped up and gave us everything they had,” he said.
The junior varsity boys did not get to play Friday because of field conditions.
The varsity game was held on the grass field at Midwestern State University
Coaches did not want to damage the surface by playing two games.
The JV game will be made up later at a later date.
District play continues for the Spotted Cats on Tuesday with Decatur's Eagles coming to Leeper Stadium.
The junior varsity kicks things off around 5 p.m. followed by the varisty around 7 p.m.
