The Holbrook Roadrunners posted a pair of wins against one loss in their past three soccer matches.
Hosting Snowflake on Oct. 4, the Birds gave up two goals to the Lobos in a span of three minutes and spent the rest of the night playing catch up. Following a third Lobo goal in the second half, Holbrook’s RJ Alvarado scored, trimming the cushion to 3-1, but after several late missed scoring chances the game ended with Holbrook on the wrong side of the 3-1 final. Javier Quintana played well in goal for the Roadrunners with several saves of Lobo attempts.
Two days later, the Roadrunners were in St. Johns, where they earned a 5-1 win in sloppy conditions. Alvarado scored Holbrook’’s first goal with a low line drive. The Redskins then tied the game, taking advantage of a Holbrook defensive mistake. Alvarado added a second goal and Robert Jaquez found the back of the net, pushing the lead to 3-1. Giuseppe Tambe and Jesse Spangler tacked on two more scores to boost the final margin to four. On the defensive end of the field, Levi Reyes, Alvarado, Jaquez and Andy Leon were strong, especially in the second half.
Those two teams met up again Oct. 8, this time in Holbrook. Proving the first outcome wasn’t a fluke, Holbrook pushed ahead and won this match 9-4. Jaquez started things quickly for the home team, scoring in the first minute of the game. Shortly after St. Johns added a goal to tie the game, Alvarado put Holbrook back ahead just three minutes into the match.
Three minutes later Jaquez scored his second goal of the match. At the 10-minute mark of the first half Tambe scored, pushing Holbrook’s lead to 4-1. Spangler then closed out the first half scoring by beating the keeper on a nice touch shot, ending the first 40 minutes of action with the Roadrunners comfortably on top, 5-1. In the second half, with several bench players seeing action, Holbrook gave up three goals, but added four more on its side of the scoring column. Leon booted one in from 25 yards out. Reyes scored his first career goal, beating the Redskin goalie in a one on one situation. Quintana, Holbrook’s usual goalkeeper, moved to offense and scored two goals.
The Roadrunners headed into this week’s action ranked sixth in the power point standings with a 6-5 record. They are scheduled to play at St. Michael on Tuesday, Oct. 18, but that team has forfeited several of its games thus far this season. Either way the Roadrunners will play their final regular season match at Show Low on Thursday, Oct. 20. The first round of the state tournament doesn’t get underway until the weekend of Oct. 28 and 29.
