Boys soccer: Vaqueros finish second consecutive unbeaten league season

Jim Vallet, for the Fernley Reporter

The Fernley boys soccer team ended its second consecutive perfect regular season by beating Yerington 3-1 on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at Fernley High School.

The Vaqueros will take their 12-0 league record and No. 1 playoff seed from the Northern 3A League B into a first round matchup against North Tahoe, the League B No. 5 seed, at 1 p.m. Thursday in Fallon.

On a chilly fall late afternoon that left many spectators on the home side wondering why they were sitting on the shaded side of the field with a cold breeze directly in their faces, the Vaqueros rewarded their supporters’ allegiance by dominating the contest from start to finish. The score of the game did not reflect the dominance of the Vaqueros over the Lions. On top of that, Fernley coach Jose Garcia did not hesitate to substitute his players in and out early and often as the Vaqueros prepared for this week’s playoffs.

Jacob McCreary began the scoring when the Yerington goalkeeper misplayed what looked like a pass from Carson Humes and left a loose ball in front of the Yerington net that McCreary promptly buried to give the home team a 1-0 lead. 

Four minutes later, McCreary struck again when he converted a beautiful Sergio Alvarez pass to make the score 2-0, Fernley.

Five minutes after that, senior Cade Maestas took time from his cabana boy training and blasted a penalty kick rocket past the Lions’ goalkeeper after Sergio Alvarez was fouled in the penalty area to give Fernley a 3-0 lead.

In the game’s 28th minute, Yerington got on the scoreboard when what appeared to be a poor kick somehow still popped over Fernley goaltender Jake Heimbruch’s head and came down into the net. Heimbruch later bounced back with a great save when Yerington broke through the Fernley defense and got a hard shot away, but Heimbruch was very quick to his left and so the half ended with Fernley leading, 3-1.

There was no scoring in the second half despite many nice plays by Alavarez, Angel Martinez, Cade Maestas, and Corbin Mulei that led to good scoring opportunities that either went wide, hit the net’s crossbar, or were stopped by the Yerington goalkeeper. In spite of the overall dominance of the Vaqueros, Yerington did get a couple of chances that Heimbruch was there to stop and preserve the Vaquero win.

After the game, the Vaqueros recognized their five seniors on senior night. Angel Martinez, Jake Heimbuch, Corbin Mulei, Michael Rivera, and Cade Maestas along with family members were introduced the those in attendance, and some biographical information was shared on each player.