Senior Sam Diamond said Park boys’ soccer has an upper hand on other schools because the whole team can control the ball with great skill.

“Every single player on our team is just really good on the ball, and you don’t find that in too many high school teams so I think that’s probably our biggest strength,” Diamond said.

In Park’s second section game, Kennedy junior Erik Cardoso scored the first goal in the 28th minute. Junior Randy Mayele tied the game with a header, and senior Zinedine Kroeten scored the winning goal in the 76th minute. The final score was 2-1, making Park’s new  record 14-1-1.

Diamond said the reason Kennedy scored the first goal was a lack of communication in the defensive area. He said the attackers could have easily scored a few more goals.

“Our weakness is not talking in the back, obviously you can see that with the goal. Also just finishing goals because we could have put a lot more away,” Diamond said.

Head coach Chato Alvarado said it was problematic that Kennedy scored so soon, but it meant the boys had a change of play, leading to the two goals.

“I think we played well. The goal against us was unfortunate but the boys they kept fighting and we fortunately got two goals,” Alvarado said. “We started playing the balls on the outside and creating more chances.”

Senior Cole Beaton said it’s key to never underestimate teams even if you have beaten them before, since there are so many variables in soccer.

“We beat these guys 4-1 before but we knew it was sections, it’s a whole different game, everybody comes out for sections and plays really hard so, we don’t underestimate anybody,” Beaton said.

Diamond said the team always gets a wake up call after getting scored on.

“Once we realized that we were down, we kind of realized that we had to really play well,” Diamond said. “We needed to do what we do best, come back and score the goals and that’s what we did.”

Assistant coach Anson Opara said the boys have recently been scoring last minute but the team isn’t doing anything wrong, the shots just aren’t working.

“Soccer is a weird game. Sometimes you can shoot 50 times on net and just not score, it’s unlucky,” Opara said. “It’s only happened the last couple games, I don’t think it’s anything they’re not doing wrong, it’s just happening.”

Alvarado said they are looking forward to the next section game.

“Hopefully we will play a good game. If at the end of the game, we lose but we played a good game i’m happy , but if we win and don’t play well i’m not going to be happy” Alvarado said.

Park will play Wayzata at 5 p.m. Oct. 16th at the stadium.