There would be no last-minute heroics needed this time.
Aberdeen Central scored 35 seconds into the contest and never looked back on the way to a 7-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference boys’ soccer win over Tea Area at Brownell Activities Complex Tuesday evening.
Golden Eagles coach Lance Mohr said a key was the proper mindset heading onto the pitch, wanting a solid start and playing a complete game.
“We wanted to get as close to playing 80 good minutes with that mentality and see where it landed us,” Mohr said, “and this is where it landed us.”
Antonio Buedo Ruiz found the back of the net in the opening minute of play and that set the tone for the rest of the contest, unlike the last game where the Golden Eagles needed two late goals to force a draw against Sioux Falls Roosevelt.
“It was mainly just our mentality, because every game we’ve played we’ve come out flat and we just didn’t have the intensity like we did until the last 10 minutes when we were down 2-nil and we need two goals,” said Central junior captain Derek Arunasalam. “So we just decided today we’d go out with that mentality and we’d just go out there like were down two goals.”
The mindset worked to perfection as Central played with an intensity that the Titans were not able to match.
“We wanted it. We wanted to get a good start,” said Central sophomore Linus Johson. “(Our coaches) kept telling us we’ve kind of been starting slow, so finally I think it snapped into us, we’re like we’ve got to get going.”
Of the squad’s seven goals, none were more memorable than Arunasalam’s 35-yard set kick that landed over the goalkeeper’s outstretched hands and into the corner of the net on the fly.
“I just listened to coach,” Arunasalam said. “He told me to put it on frame, so I did and it just happened to go in the net.”
Tyler Bain and Arunasalam worked in harmony on a play that resulted in a Bain goal with 16 seconds left in the half and the onslaught was on.
Central tacked on four more goals in the final half, two by Johnson and one each for Gus Bjerknes and Derek Holland.
Mohr said a week off between games was extremely beneficial for the Golden Eagles, allowing them to refocus.
“We obviously had the week off which was nice, because we needed a little bit of a hard reset,” Mohr said. “You kind of get in a slog of going through game after game after game, and sometimes you just need to step back and get out of the weeds a little bit and evaluate kind of what we’re doing, and for these guys it’s all about mentality.”
The message was sent, received and then acted upon as Central put together its most complete effort of the season.
“It feels amazing,” Johnson said. “We’ve been working for it, we wanted it, and we got the job done.”
The Golden Eagles, 6-1-3 on the season, now head into back-to-back challenges, hosting once-beaten Sioux Falls Lincoln on Thursday and heading to once-beaten Watertown on Monday.
“This is exactly how you want to go into it,” Mohr said. “We want to go into it with this mentality, with this confidence, understanding though that we need to replicate that at that level and we’ll see if we can do it.”
Tea Area 0 0 – 0
Aberdeen Central 3 4 – 7
First Half: 1, AC, Antonio Buedo Ruiz, 1st minute; 2, AC, Derek Arunasalam, 11th minute; 3, Tyler Bain (Arunasalam), 20th minute.
Second Half: 4, AC, Linus Johnson, 44th minute; 5, AC, Gus Bjerknes, 52nd minute; 6, AC, Johnson, 65th minute; 7, AC, Derek Holland, 79th minute.
Shots on Goal: Tea Area 2; Aberdeen Central 14.
Goalies: Tea Area, Brax Johnson (7 saves); Aberdeen Central, Zander Kuhfeld (2 saves).
