With just a few minutes remaining in the first half of last Thursday’s varsity rivalry game, there was suddenly a player down by the Wilcox bench. That player turned out to be Wilcox defender Juan Coronado. With the referees halting play and a trainer attending to Coronado, it was quickly decided that an ambulance was needed as Coronado had suffered a concussion with severe sensitivity to the stadium lights.
Since it was a non-league game, the schools decided to end the game after just 36 minutes with the score 2-0 Bruins. Reached via email a couple of days later, Wilcox Head Coach Tomas Montes had the following update:
“Juan spent the night in the hospital, but he’s doing well. I still cannot recall a collision, which apparently happened earlier in the game, but Juan didn’t alert the coaches of being hurt until coming to the sideline when he did.”
As for the game itself, the Bruins worked their attack beautifully. Multiple times they utilized the head flick off crosses into the box as a second pass for an easier shot and it worked to perfection on their second goal by
“Yes, yes, yes,” confirmed Bruins Head Coach Joel Denney with enthusiasm when asked if his squad practices the head flicks off set pieces. “Our execution was terrific. I felt like the kids took the game a bit more serious in implementing what we have been working on, which is looking for what we call the ‘second ball,’ which is any ball after a first touch. I felt that they executed that to perfection.”
Juniors Mateo Tavares and Salomon Kendaya were the goal scorers for the Bruins as Santa Clara dictated the pace of play.
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“Both Tavares and Kendaya are solid players that have added some serious offensive depth to our group,” praised coach Denney. “Our kids as a whole were super excited for this game because Santa Clara has struggled with every sport against Wilcox.”
Coach Denney wanted to express his thoughts for Coronado and Wilcox and the safety of all the players.
“Didn’t like the way the game finished. I stress with the kids, safety first. I asked our kids to keep [Juan] in their thoughts because it doesn’t matter if it is one of your own or if it’s someone from an opposing team. Obviously seeing a kid go down like that and paramedics and things like that called to the scene is scary. That’s how we left it, good job in the game, but make sure to keep this young man in your thoughts.”
Wilcox will next take the pitch against Monta Vista on Jan. 3 while Santa Clara faces Leland on Dec. 28.