SILER CITY — Behind two goals from Francisco Ibarra and a shutout led by goalkeeper Angelo Vera, Los Jets took first place in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference outright following a 5-0 win over Southeast Alamance on Sept. 18.
“It was a really important win for us because Southeast is a really good team,” Jordan-Matthews coach Paul Cuadros said. “They’ve got great players on that team, and they’re very dynamic, they’re fast, they can score, and they’ve been burning it up all season. We’re in a little bit of a rebuilding period for us. We’ve worked hard on some concepts, principles and fundamentals, and it really paid off tonight, so we’re really happy about that.”
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Ibarra broke free with the ball down the field, evaded the sliding goalkeeper and knocked in the Jets’ first score from close range.
Moments later, Ibarra rebounded a teammate’s miss and tapped in another goal to put Jordan-Matthews ahead 2-0 with 13:43 remaining in the first half.
“Through the weekend, I’ve been studying and looking at what I can improve on,” Ibarra said. “Today it really showed. The past two games, I didn’t score, but today, I pushed myself.”
The Jets took full control of the game when Darwin Suarez Zoga put a free kick across the goal line with just over a minute left to play in the first half.
Four different Jets ended up scoring in the win as Jeremey Alvarado and Marvin Herrera put the final two goals on the board for the Jets in the second half.
“This is not a single player team,” Cuadros said. “We are going to attack from various positions and with various people. We want to be multidimensional in our attack.”
As the offense began to find its groove early on, the Jets’ defense had already established its footing by limiting the Stallions’ looks at the goal.
Both teams brought physicality to the fight, but Jordan-Matthews won the battle with solid ball pressure and steals that knocked Southeast Alamance out of rhythm.
“The defense did pretty good,” Vera said. “They stepped up and did their job.”
In the game’s final minutes, Southeast Alamance found some opportunities to get on the scoreboard, but crucial saves from Vera and disruptions from the Jets’ defense kept the Stallions with a donut. The Jets secured their second shutout of the season after beating Hobbton, 3-0, on Aug. 23.
“It felt good keeping the clean sheet because last year, we shut them out 9-0,” Vera said. “It feels good for them not to score on me this year.”
Jordan-Matthews’ defense has been one of its strengths, especially in conference play as it has only given up three goals to conference opponents.
“We work hard at it,” Cuadros said. “More than that, the guys really just want to hustle, and our goalkeeper has been fabulous. Things have been working out well for us.”
Ibarra said the team has seen players put more effort into learning and improving the defensive communication, which wasn’t as strong for the Jets earlier this season.
Following a rough start to the year with a resurgence in conference play, things are starting to look a bit familiar to last season when the Jets followed a similar path.
Last year, Jordan-Matthews played its closest games, including two draws and a loss, prior to winning 11 games in a row (including three playoff games).
After an 0-3 start the Jets have won seven out of their last eight games (four straight conference wins) as of Sunday.
For Ibarra, he said this season is starting to give him the same feeling, but for Cuadros the rough start to the season was more about the opponent more than his team.
Cuadros believes the tough 4A opponents early in the year have prepared his team for high-stakes conference games like the win over Southeast Alamance, and now the Jets are turning the lessons learned into sustained success.
“It was very challenging for this young team to play through those types of games and to mature that way,” Cuadros said.
Jordan-Matthews followed the win over the Stallions with a 2-1 victory over Southern Alamance on Sept. 19, putting its win streak at five before Monday.
The Jets will have another date with Southeast Alamance on Oct. 16 for what could be another battle for the top of the conference standings.
