Campbell boys cruise to 7-1 win over Waterloo
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CAMPBELL -- For much of the 80-minute match Wednesday, Campbell overwhelmed Waterloo's defense, scoring goal after goal en route to a 7-1 win.
The Red Devils' aggression gave them their third straight victory to start the season and opened Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference (MVAC) play with a win, but head coach Dallan Patterson was quick to point out to his team that it was also their third game without a clean sheet.
"Solid game," Patterson said. "We were able to move the ball a little bit better than we have in the past couple games. We conceded a goal, which I wouldn't like to. I was able to move some stuff around and rotate, which is always a good thing. So overall, good game."
It took until deep into the second half before Campbell allowed a goal. Before then, the Devils continuously pressed the Vikings, taking away the ball in the midfield and putting them on their back heels.
The scoring started early for Campbell, which went up 1-0 less than three minutes in when CJ Sarigianopoulos tapped in a rebound after Alex Meija took a hard shot at the net.
Numerous Campbell near-misses and offside calls followed, as did many Waterloo turnovers, resulting in more than 33 minutes of play without a goal. Fortunately for the Devils, though, David Diaz finally broke through and gave his team a 2-0 advantage four minutes before halftime.
"We like to be up the field the whole time and with enough numbers forward," Patterson said. "If we lose the ball, we win it back right away because we're all there, and then we keep it up. We love to counter press. That's definitely something we look for because we want the ball. I hate not having the ball. I know that's when you're vulnerable. If the other team has the ball, you can't get it. If the other team has the ball, that's the only way you can get scored on. So we try to keep it as much as possible."
Shortly after returning from the break, Meija widened Campbell's lead when his shot could not be stopped by Waterloo goalkeeper Austin Mazur, who got a hand on the ball but not enough to keep it from bouncing into the net.
Five minutes later, Sean Griffin chased down a ball and finished a one-one-one. Less than a minute after that, Meija scored his second goal of the game when Mazur stepped across the plane with the ball in his hands.
The Vikings scored their only goal of the contest 57 minutes in when Isaac Herbert made it a 5-1 game. Herbert nearly scored a second three minutes later, but the ball crashed off the crossbar.
Campbell then added to its lead when Ty'Juan Daltorio headed in a cross on a corner kick before Meija finished off his hat trick and the 7-1 win with a powerful shot from distance that trickled into the net after being deflected by the keeper.
"Going into halftime, I told everybody, we gotta play like we're down 0-0 at least," Patterson said of the five-goal second half. "We got a lot of guys that like to score. A lot of our goal scorers returned from last year, so they get after it. And once we get one, usually the rest start to go in. I think that's what changed it."
With the win, Campbell improves to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the MVAC. The Red Devils, who have outscored their opponents 19-5 so far, do not play another game until Aug. 31, when they host Newton Falls.
In total, Campbell has just three matches scheduled over the next three weeks, after which it does not have more than five days between contests for the rest of the season.
"Resetting, taking a step back, getting back to the fundamentals, getting some touches to the ball and then increasing that intensity as we get there," Patterson said of his plan amid infrequent matches. "We got a lot of guys, so going against each other, getting that next man up, competition for different positions, watching some film, just learning from our mistakes while keeping that intensity. This is also an opportunity for us to keep the conditioning pretty consistent because we're early in the season. And who knows, maybe we get a mid-season scrimmage or something."