By Brittany Llorente
bllorente@hometownnewsol.com
SEBASTIAN - The Sebastian River High School Sharks soccer team continued their undefeated season, beating the Indians 4-1.
Rain during the day left the field wet and slick and made for slow going at the start of the game.
"This was rough and we had some bad pace," said Sebastian Coach Kurt Bangert. "But they really settled down and focused after they got into the game."
Sebastian, even early in the game, was more organized than Vero, offensively.
Vero would try to get the ball away from the Sebastian players, but then kicked it to no one, or directly into the waiting feet of a Sebastian player.
Jose Ramora scored Sebastian's first goal at 4:40 in the first half bringing the score to 1-0.
Sebastian and Vero are long-time rivals and when the teams go head-to-head, the players are aggressive.
Immediately after half time, Vero players were yellow carded after a flag was thrown on a Sebastian player, and then the Vero player verbally retaliated.
"These games are extremely hard core," said Sebastian's Daniel Hurtado who scored two goals in the game. "Everyone is on fire."
Vero's defense held Sebastian from scoring again, in the hunt for their own goal.
Twenty minutes in, Sebastian defender Matt Magrane scored the second goal for Sebastian.
Vero lacked pressure on Sebastian, allowing Sebastian to have an almost open field to navigate the ball and almost seemed to lose motivation on the field.
With 18 minutes left in the game, the rain came and made the ball and field even wetter.
At 10:40, Rhys Lewis scored Vero's first goal, bringing the game to 2-1.
This single goal seemed to revive Vero. They started playing harder, putting more goal attempts on Sebastian.
"I tried my best out here today," said Kyle Phan. "The goal built up a lot of confidence and I feel like I can juke anybody."
Vero Beach goalie, Austin Diaz, had a hard time after the rain started, missing a kick from Sebastian. Hurtado quickly rebounded the ball off of Diaz's chest, to score another for Sebastian.
Two minutes later, Hurtado scored the final goal of the game, ending Vero's late game rally and ending the game 4-1.
"I thought it was an excellent match, going back and forth to both sides," said Vero Coach Chris Fonehouse. "Once we got the first goal, we came back, however we need to work on our momentum."