Two quick goals give Emerald boys win over Pickens

After consistently making threats to score, the Vikings finally had a breakthrough. Daniel Duran gave the Vikings the lead and Caiden Hendrick struck again in the 57th minute to give the Emerald boys soccer team a 2-0 win over Pickens.

“Much improved from the last 10 days,” Emerald coach Jamie Ramm said. “The desire, the heart, the attitude, the work ethic was there tonight. Like I just told them there, when you have that and you've got an opportunity to showcase your talents from there, but without that, you’re not going to be successful.”

Duran gave the Vikings the life they needed early in the second half, making an up-close shot to end the match’s scoring drought. Two minutes later, Hendrick tilted his head just right off a corner kick, a shot that went right under the crossbar for an insurance goal.

The difference between those two minutes and the first half was day and night, as a lot of Emerald’s scoring threats broke down near the goal. However, Ramm made the necessary adjustments at halftime to give his team better chances at scores.

“(Pickens’) strengths were diagonal passes into the wide forwards. Our wide forwards were tracking them all the way back, which made us very compact, but it gave us no threat in transition,” Ramm said.

“We made a couple of changes where our center midfielders pressed the wide areas, which allowed our wide forwards to stay high, but it gave us that threat in transition, which is where both goals came from.”

As for the Blue Flame, they spent much of the first half getting chances in transition. Some of their opportunities were either broken up near the goal or stopped by Emerald goalkeeper Singi Martinez.

Martinez was a force all night for the Vikings, making clutch saves time and time again and coming up to dive on the ball when he needed to.

“He’s a great kid,” Ramm said. “Was an All-Region selection for his last year, he’s an excellent goalkeeper and we’re thankful to have him on our team, for sure.”

Following a tough 10 days, Ramm’s Vikings now have momentum going into region play. Emerald will begin its region slate Tuesday against Woodruff.

“It’s a boost after two difficult non-region defeats,” Ramm said. “This gives us the boost that we can compete against 4A schools and we should be competitive against in 3A. I expect us to be stronger than what we were last year.”