Blazers bounce Falcons

When his beautifully struck header sailed right into the gloved hands of the opposing goalkeeper, Lindhurst High striker Erik Machuca responded by jokingly grabbing the net and collapsing into the back of the goal.

His chance for a first-ever hat trick had been denied.

So when one last opportunity presented itself in the final minute of the game, the junior let it rip — blasting in a final score to put the punctuation on a 4-1 Blazers rout over River Valley at home on Wednesday.

"Sometimes it falls, sometimes it doesn't," Machuca said.

Indeed. Just ask his Blazer teammates, who failed to convert numerous chances including a host of shots that clanked off the crossbars.

"As you can see we dented the snot out of our goal posts," Lindhurst High coach Eric Hoefler said with a smile. "Those give me heart attacks, you have to finish those.

"They're low-hanging fruit, you don't get too many of those."

Not that he was too flustered about it. He's just too pleased with the fact his team made it through their non-conference schedule with a white hot 4-0-1 record.

"Were loving it," he said. "We're one big family and we're having a blast."

On this day, the credit goes to the Lindhurst attackers, who helped the Blazers claw back from a 1-0 halftime deficit.

In the seventh minute of the second half, Machuca headed in his first goal off a deflection from Falcons' goalie — a freshman injury replacement — Jose Mendoza. Machuca's second goal five minutes later was a similar story.

Alexis Lopez sent a sharp pass down the left sideline to Tomas Ramirez, who bounced a shot off the post that deflected right to Mendoza, who happily buried it to give the Blazers the lead. His final score would come in the 80th minute on a routine shot just outside the box.

Though his earlier shot ended up being an assist to Machuca, Ramirez took the honors for the prettiest play of the day when he smoked in a shot to the upper left area of the goal from more than 30-plus yards out.

"That was from downtown," Hoefler said. "He kicked it from Marysville."

Darrick Meyers scored River Valley's lone goal in the 32nd minute of the first. The Falcons had a chance to go up 2-0 off a free kick, but the goal was called back after it was confirmed that the Blazers goalie — who was nowhere near the goal when the play commenced — had called for time.

For Falcons coach Matt Scarfe, the progression of events was frustrating.

"When they called back that goal it took the wind out of our sails," he said. "That was a 2-0 lead that got pulled back from us."