FREMONT – Sometimes results are defined by more than the final score.
Just by looking at the scores of their last two games, one sees the Ross boys soccer teams lost both matches and failed to score a goal in the process.
What the scores don’t show, however, is Tuesday, in a 4-0 loss to St. Francis, and Thursday night, a 2-0 loss to St. John’s, the Little Giants played back-to-back performances that coach Alex Coressel said were their best of the season. With the win, St. John’s tied St. Francis atop the TRAC for the league championship, so for the Little Giants to play both co-champions in back-to-back games and come away with momentum from playing their best, is a victory of its own.
“Flat-out effort and being patient defensively, like we’ve been all year,” Coressel said.
“Defensively they were getting in front of shots, they were sitting down and not letting them dribble around, made them make a pass and (goalkeeper) Mikey (Contreras) had another great performance in net. When you combine all those things and put the effort behind it, we can be dangerous.”
Ross played St. John’s to a scoreless draw through nearly 70 minutes Thursday. The Titans didn’t put one past Contreras (12 saves) until 12 minutes remained in the game. St. John’s struck again two minutes later, putting away the Little Giants’ bid for an upset.
“We relaxed for a second, the guys on defense were flat-out worn out,” Coressel said. “They hit a couple passes and were able to knock one in. The first ball went in and we like, ‘oh, dang’ and couldn’t get ourselves ready for the next attack.”
Coressel was buoyed by his team’s play in light of injuries to several starters. Forward Drew Miesle missed the game after an injury suffered Tuesday. Thursday night, both Isaac Minor and Spencer Batey had to leave the game early. Despite the losses, the Little Giants soldiered on.
“We had three starters on the bench, one of them defensive, and we had guys step up huge and play some big minutes,” Coressel said.
“Chris Navarro stepped up, we put him in the back and he played a great, great center defensive spot tonight. He was very patient, blocked a lot of shots.
“Cesar Flores was a man on a mission, I think he lost one 50-50 ball in the first half, if that. He was the main guy trying to stop their counter-attack. He was all over the place.”
Ross is now 7-7 on the season and finishes 2-5 in the TRAC. The Little Giants host Sandusky Saturday morning at 11, then close out the regular season at home Monday against Marion Harding.
Coressel said his team is playing its best soccer of the year heading into next week’s district tournament.
“We told the guys back in July, when we went to the tournament in Otsego, they needed to trust the process,” he said. “We did some things in the preseason that not everybody was happy about, during the season there have been games we weren’t happy with, but hopefully we’re peaking at the right time going into the tournament next week.”