Rattlers fall short against Vandegrift

On Tuesday night, the San Marcos Rattlers hosted the Austin Vandegrift Vipers in an early season non-district test to help prepare the team for the rest of the season. Even though the result was a 2-0 defeat in favor of the Vipers, Rattler Head Coach Conrado Reyes was pleased with how his team came out and competed for 80 minutes against a talented Vandegrift team.

“I think we played really well, this was a very good team that beat Lake Travis, who are the defending state champions,” Reyes said. “The way we played tonight definitely shows we are young but we are growing and we are in the right spot for the season. I scheduled really hard teams in the beginning because I want this team to be ready when we get into district play.”

The Rattlers were able to hold off a charging Vipers team through the first half, keeping the score notched at zero at the break. Despite getting nine shots on freshman goalkeeper Diego Hernandez, he was able to come up with big saves, keeping his San Marcos team in the game.

“I saw the team working really hard, which is what wins games but we just came up a little short tonight,” Hernandez said of the Rattlers’ effort on defense. It was a first half of generating chances in the offensive end as the Vipers had seven corner kick opportunities that the Rattlers were able to clear away to keep the score at nil-nil going into the halftime break.

“We are missing some key players that were out tonight,” Hernandez said. “But playing with this defense tonight made us realize how good we can be and much we can accomplish and possibly win districts.”

Coming out of the break, San Marcos continued using a defensive strategy dropping more players back to prevent less Vandegrift chances.

“For the first 10 minutes of each half I dropped into more of a defensive posture because of the way they were controlling the ball,” Reyes said. “I think we are growing and we will get there. That was the strategy going into tonight, to me the most important parts of the game are the first 10 minutes of the game and the first 10 minutes after the half.”

The Vipers cracked the scoring column open at the 26:19 mark in the second half when senior Sebastian Eve buried the kick into the back of the net past Hernandez from 12 yards out, giving Vandegrift the 1-0 lead.

Late in the game with under a minute to play in the game, Reyes and his Rattlers got caught in a counter attack as he had moved his team all up to the offensive end as they looked for the equalizer to even the scoring.

However, the Vipers were able to catch them in that counter, clear the ball, and got a shot up towards the goal that was initially blocked by Hernandez, and after the block the Vipers’ junior Aryan Sunder was able to get the loose ball between the posts into the net.

“I pushed everyone up to try to get the score to 1-1, and they caught us in the counter attack,” Reyes said. “It’s one of those things that happens when you try to finish the game and score and tie. You leave yourself vulnerable back there with one-on-ones.”

The Rattlers freshman keeper came up with 10 saves on the night — seven of which came in the first half.

“Diego is a freshman, and he is amazing,” Reyes said. “He is a big key to this. He played outside select soccer. One of those kids that will definitely be a superstar by the end of his career.”

San Marcos will be in action on Tuesday, Jan. 17 in a non-district matchup with the Davenport Wolves at 7 p.m. from Toyota Rattler Stadium.