The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School men’s varsity soccer team played the Cardinal Gibbons High School Chiefs on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at the Eagles’ home field. The Eagles were coming off of a 6-1 loss versus Pembroke Pines High School, with their record set at 2-2-1. Gibbons had won three of their last four games, making their record 3-2-2.

The Chiefs took advantage of early misses from the Eagles and scored the first goal of the game, taking a 1-0 lead. Eagles midfielder Anthony Carnuccio (5) had an open scoring opportunity but the shot got blocked.

“I feel the game started off rough but we are a team that is persistent until the end,” captain Ian Selvaraj (10) said.

The Eagles started to tighten up on defense, taking the ball away any chance they could. The defense helped the offense get even more shot attempts, scoring on a short range goal from forward Soren Jacobsen (3) and the assist coming from striker Aquiles Yibirin (9). This goal tied the game at 1-1.

“The moment I saw the ball hit the back of the net was one of the best feelings in the world, especially against such a big opponent,” Jacobsen said.

With more back and forth with the ball, the first half ended with the Eagles tied 1-1 with the Chiefs.

The Eagles started playing even better defense during the second half, forcing the Chiefs to turn the ball over at every possession.

After many missed shot attempts, the Eagles finally broke the tie and took the lead with a goal from midfielder Nolan Alba (15).

“It felt great that I was able to help my team by scoring the winning goal,” Alba said

The rest of the game had the ball going back and forth between teams, with no more goals being scored.

“This game was played much better defensively than the other games,” Selvaraj said. “We cleaned up a lot of slack and it was organized well.”

The final score was 2-1, with the Eagles taking home the win. The Eagles’ next game is Wednesday, Dec. 6, when they take on the Flanagan High School Falcons at home.