The 2008 Soccer Season came to a close on Saturday as the Zizzers lost to the Cassville Wildcats in the First Round of District play. Going into the game the Zizzers knew Uziel Franco was the key to the Wildcats offense. Unfortunately, the Zizzers weren’t able to contain him. Franco scored all 6 goals for the Wildcats enroute to a 6-0 Victory. Just four minutes into the game Franco ripped a shot off the crossbar, just missing a goal. Six minutes later, he would get goal number one on a hard shot from a difficult angle on the right side. In the 15th minute, Franco worked a give-and-go with Luis Ortega on the left side and fired a shot past Anthony Holt to make it 2-0 Wildcats. The Zizzers, who started out slow, began to play with a little more energy as the half went along, but they couldn’t get anything on the scoreboard. In the 31st minute, Franco made it 3-0 when he ran onto a ball that bounced over the Zizzer defense. As Holt came out to try to make a play, Franco tapped it over Holt and into the goal. Just two minutes later Franco capped the first half scoring with a blast from about 20 yards out that hit off Holt’s hands. The halftime score was 4-0 in favor of the Wildcats.
In the second half, the Zizzers played hard, but couldn’t generate many great offensive chances. In the 16th minute of the half, the Zizzers were called for tripping Franco in the penalty box resulting in a penalty kick. Franco converted the kick for his fifth goal of the game. Three minutes later, Franco got his final tally to make the score 6-0. The Zizzers continued to fight until the final whistle. The final game for six Seniors (David Evans, Anthony Holt, Tony Meza, Nathan Moore, Seth Phegley, and Jesse Wright) was also the first Varsity game for a couple of Freshmen (Justin Casillas and Jonathon Hanshaw). The Seniors will be missed as they have provided us with some great moments. Thank you boys, it has been a pleasure working with you! For the returning players, some well deserved time off, will be followed by numerous opportunities to start working toward next season.
