There are two views to take about the opening game of the league season—one says that it’s the most important game of the year, the other says it’s the least. Not surprisingly, how you feel about that can sometimes come from whether you won, or lost your opening match. Coach Rod Petkovic’s Millikan Rams had an impressive defensive performance, beating Jordan 3-0 at home in the first game of the season, and Petkovic made some compelling points about the game’s importance. “The first game in league is the most important—because if you beat Jordan, they become your partner. They compete and try to win, and play the other teams that much harder.”
For coach Juan Rodriguez and the Panthers, the game has to be put in the rearview mirror immediately—you can’t say you lost the most important game of the year, after all. “They’re a good team, no doubt,” he said. “It was just a weird game for us, and we’ll get to play them again at our house, hopefully things will go differently.”
Whether things go differently or not, events couldn’t get much more positive for the Rams—they took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute of the game after a free kick put on goal was deflected, allowing Andrews Montes to take a shot at it, only to see it deflected directly back to teammate Ismael Ayal, who drilled it easily into the net. The Rams dominated possession from the outset, with Jordan’s only trips to the other side of the field coming on two counters, neither of which produced a shot on goal—in fact, Millikan’s defense kept Jordan from registering a single SOG all game.
The Rams built a quick cushion in the fifth minute of the second half, when Luis Garcia scored, and then added an insurance goal three minutes later when Montes came free up the middle and toe poked the ball into the net. Jordan continued to struggle offensively and never threatened. Millikan keeper Jorge Becerra achieved the rare feat of posting a shutout without recording a single save.
“I’m very proud of our performance defensively,” said Petkovic. “We shut down their offensive attack in the second half.”
It was Millikan’s 10th shutout of the year, in 18 games, putting them in contention to potentially make a run at breaking the school record of 19 shutouts set last year (the Rams played 34 games, which puts them almost exactly right on pace). Millikan (14-2-2) won’t need much help in focusing on the next game, Wednesday at three at Cabrillo—Rams/Jags boys’ soccer is one of the league’ most entertaining rivalries, and the game is well worth the trip if you can make it.
Jordan will try to regroup, and regather its strength—Rodriguez says the bulk of his starters were out of the country on Christmas vacation over the break, and weren’t training or conditioning. “Two weeks off without touching the ball will hurt a team,” he said—Rodriguez is hopeful the game against Millikan and a good practice on Tuesday will have his team ready to play when they host Poly on Wednesday, also at three.