Ross’ Chris Navarro dribbles the ball into the Central Catholic end of the field.
FREMONT – Through six years and 42 games competing in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, the Fremont Ross boys soccer team won just two games as the 2017 season began.
In their first two conference games of this season, the Little Giants have already doubled their win total.
Ross controlled the play for much of its league match with Toledo Central Catholic Tuesday night and finally put the ball in the net in the second half, going on to a 4-1 win over the Fighting Irish.
“Twenty-eight goals in four games is pretty amazing,” coach Alex Coressel said. “Right now, with the success, I think they’re starting to feel hungry, that when they’re coming into games instead of ‘Oh man we’re playing this team or that team’ we’re going to go in and battle and give it a shot.”
The victory keeps Ross undefeated, 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the TRAC. While Ross is a far cry from the program that went 2-35-5 in the TRAC coming into this year, Coressel isn’t yet ready to say his team is ready to contend.
“We got a ways to go, for sure,” he said. “Once we hit those big three of St. Francis, St. John’s and Findlay, that’s really going to show us exactly what we have. We knew we were at least in the middle of the pack. Central is a team we should beat on a good night for us and we did that. Coming down the road will be the true test.”
Ross fired 30 shots Tuesday night, forcing the Irish keeper to make 18 saves. Despite controlling the pace of the play for much of the night, the Little Giants remained scoreless until the final minute of the first half when Carter Durbin sent a nice pass to his brother, Sam, who fired it into the net for a 1-0 halftime lead.
“We kind of went back to our old ways at points in the first half,” Coressel said. “A lot of (shots) outside the 18 and in the center (of the goal) and we were knocking our heads against the wall, so to speak.”
Ross returned to form in the second half, finding space on the outside and working its way to the front of the goal and firing. They Little Giants stopped crossing the ball over the middle, where Irish’s size and strength gave them the advantage, and instead kept the ball on the ground.
“Once we started playing it on the ground we got some nice, easy finishes,” Coressel said. “We kept battling all night.”
Dylan Brady scored a pair of goals, including one on a free kick, to put Ross ahead 3-1. Chris Navarro added a goal with 10 minutes to play off an assist from Sam Durbin.
“He was on fire,” Coressel said of Brady. “As soon as the game started their coach was calling him out and making sure they were marking him. I think he really shows up in every league game, especially when the competition picks up. He’s a guy we can count on night-in and night-out.”
Ross goalkeeper Mikey Contreras made seven saves on the night to pick up his fourth win of the season.
Ross returns to play Thursday when it plays host to Toledo Start at 5 p.m.