Head coach Jacob Osborne wanted to see a shutout.
After opening the season with seven shutouts in the first 11 games – including four straight at one point – the Carthage boys soccer team hadn’t held an opponent scoreless since Sept. 20.
Those hopes were dashed early, however, when visiting Joplin scored just 30 seconds into the game. Despite the early deficit, the Tigers went on to win 4-2 on Thursday at David Haffner Stadium with four different players scoring.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a shutout,” Osborne said. “We’ve spent a lot of time working on defense in practice. We just keep breaking down or having a mental lapse. Tonight we came out flat, they scored a goal in 30 seconds and it took us 10 or 15 minutes to get into the game. Once we got into the game we took control and things went good.”
Joplin’s Rashawn Davis scored unassisted in the first minute. Carthage answered in the 21st when senior Victor Cancinos sent a cross to sophomore Jose Castro, who scored from right in front of the goal.
Carthage went ahead 2-1 later in the half when junior Kelvin Ramos Paxtor scored on a header from the right side assisted by senior Celio Coreas.
In the 65th minute senior Raul Basulto made it a 3-1 game with an assist from senior Chris Ramos.
Joplin scored in the 77th minute on a Michael Landers shot assisted by Blake Dean. Carthage shut the door in the 80th, though, when Coreas scored off an assist by junior David Garcia.
“We picked up the pressure defensively,” Osborne said. “We kind of let down at the end there in the last five minutes, went up 3-1 and switched it off mentally and gave up another goal. We’re still looking for the consistency, especially on defense.”
That consistency has been a theme in the last month for the Tigers. Carthage started the year winning seven of its first eight games, but Thursday’s win was the first time the Tigers won consecutive games since Sept. 15. They improved to 12-6-2 with the victory.
“We went through a three week stretch where we weren’t playing well at all,” Osborne said. “Just kind of going through the motions. The things that were making us successful at the beginning of the year – we had a great start to the season, then we weren’t doing those things. It’s the little extra effort things. We’d show spurts of it or we’d have a bad loss and we’d come back the next game but it would last for one game. Just going back and forth. Our focus the last couple weeks has been trying to get consistency back with the things that made us successful early in the season.”
Joplin fell to 5-16 with the loss.
“David Garcia played another great game,” Osborne said. “We can always count on him to be a standout player for us. Raul Basulto scored our third goal and that’s where I finally felt comfortable, getting that two-goal lead. Victor Cancinos had the assist, another senior. Jose Castro had another good game for us.”
Carthage wraps up the regular season with a game at Carl Junction Tuesday. District play begins Oct. 30.
The Tigers are seeded second in the Class 4 District 11 tournament, with Republic (14-8) earning the top seed. Springfield Central (7-12) is seeded third and Joplin is fourth.
Carthage plays Central at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at Joplin High School.
