Boys soccer: Vaqueros beat West Wendover 8-0

Jim Vallet, For the Fernley Reporter

The Fernley boys soccer team defeated West Wendover by a mercy rule score of 8-0 on Saturday, Sept. 7 at Fernley High School. 

Coach Jose Garcia’s orange shirted charges wasted no time showing West Wendover what they were in for by stealing the ball almost as soon as West Wendover put the ball into play to begin the match and scoring just 12 seconds after the opening whistle.

Even though Garcia went to his bench early and often, the Vaqueros never let up on the Wolverines. A couple of West Wendover’s players, clearly frustrated by the way the game was going, attempted to fight instead of play, but the home team was not having any of that. While two West Wendover players were kicked out of the game, the focused Fernley team kept all its players on the field and continued its onslaught. 

Jacob McCreary opened the scoring, and 10 minutes later Isaac O’Neill scored on a blazing free kick that went right through the goalie. Fifteen minutes later, Brody Garrett was fouled hard in the penalty area and on the resulting  penalty kick O’Neill made the visitors pay by driving the ball past the goalie low on the right side. Less than a minute after that Sergio Alvarez broke right through the center of the West Wendover defense and scored to make the score 4-0.

The prettiest goal of the game came in the 28th minute of the first half when Alvarez headed a corner kick from Angel Martinez into the back of the West Wendover net, drawing cheers of appreciation for this display of athleticism from the spectators. The first half ended with the Vaqueros leading 5-0.

The second half saw Fernley continue to dominate, and in the 13th minute Martinez drove a hard shot past the third West Wendover goalie of the game to make the score 6-0. After a nice set up from McCreary, Jack Lukenhouse joined the scoring party, and Michael Nguyen ended the game when he scored the Vaqueros’ eighth goal with 12 minutes left on the clock. 

The Vaqueros next game is Friday, Sept. 13 at Battle Mountain beginning at 3 p.m.