Soccer Hounds lose season opener, 2-1

The Corbin Redhounds boys soccer team opened their season Monday evening with a 2-1 loss to visiting Madison Southern, but despite losing the game Head Coach Armando Cima was still pleased with his team’s overall performance.

“If you don’t watch a lot soccer, then you don’t really know what to look for in a game,” said Cima. “You can look at final scores, but you don’t get to see the quality of the team just by looking at the scores.”

“On the day, yes, I obviously would have rather won the game, but I feel like we played at a good level. We just have some things that we need to clean up. We’re a young team, starting a couple of sophomores and a freshman, but on the whole I thought that we moved the ball very well tonight, and pressure doesn’t really bother us that much right now. To be able to say those things at the beginning of the year against an athletic team like Madison Southern is a good thing.”

Corbin went up 1-0 with 10:00 remaining in the first half Monday after senior Lucas Canineu was able to score a goal, but Madison Southern scored with just seconds left on the clock to tie things up at 1-1 going into the half.

In the second half, senior goalkeeper Brandon Dizney made some fantastic saves at the net that kept the Redhounds in the game, but Southern was able to score again at the 34:10 mark. Corbin had a couple of good looks at goals late in the contest, but none of them found their way into the back of the net.

The end result was a 2-1 loss to start out the 2015 season, but again, Cima was upbeat postgame. “I think we’re very fit,” he said. “But to get to the level that we want to play at is going to require us to be lively for a full 80 minutes. Right now, the only way to get to that level is to play into it.”

Cima also commented that, moving forward, he would like to see his young team not be afraid to take chances and make things happen on the field. “We would much rather see players making mistakes because they’re trying to be dynamic and make things happen, as opposed to being overly cautious,” he said. “You can’t be afraid.”

The Redhounds will be back in action at Corbin Primary School on Thursday, August 20 when they host Berea. Start time is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.