Pioneer High School and Skyline High School varsity soccer teams fought in a tight rivalry game, leading to a 3-2 victory for Skyline on Tuesday night at Hollway Field. The game opened fast, with Captain Patrick Regan of Pioneer scoring in the fourth minute. Regan scored with a rocket of a near-post shot inside the penalty box. Skyline equalized a minute later, with a goal on a breakaway from Jacob Carbone firing into the far corner past Pioneer goalkeeper Jack Pottow.

The second half started just as fast-paced as the first, with an electric stadium cheering on the players. In the 45th minute a free kick from Pioneer’s Leif Lauzana found its way onto the goal line very close to Pioneer’s Dane Behm, but was cleared away. Two minutes later, there was almost a goal in a penalty box scuffle in Pioneer’s penalty box following a corner, but was saved by Pioneer’s goalkeeper Marcus Byrn.

Behm ended up breaking the second-half deadlock in the 60th minute with a tap-in after a corner kick from Lauzana.

Skyline struck back quickly once again, with Lucas Webb heading the ball in from a corner two minutes later.

“It was unfortunate that we did not defend well off of our goal and gave up a quick equalizer to them…They did a nice job of getting pressure around the ball,” said Jon Sundermann, Pioneer Soccer Coach.

The winning goal came from Limamou Sek in the 64th minute, after an error from Pioneer’s captain Regan was capitalized on by Skyline’s high-pressing front line.

“What really worked was going out hard offensively,” Grand said. “We needed to clean up our passing because just a turnover on the defense led to all of their goals.”

Unfortunately, in the 70th minute, Skyline defender Benjamin Zampi had to be driven off the field due to a head injury after a collision with CHS junior Sam Grand, who plays for the Pioneer varsity team.

“He was chasing the ball to the corner, then he fell over and I was trying to save the ball from going out of bounds,” Grand said. “So I jumped over, I tried to jump over him to get to the ball and right as I jumped over, his head went up and my shinguard went straight into his head.”

The final whistle blew, ending in disappointment for Pioneer.

“I thought we competed really well, and we did a nice job of getting numbers forward when we built through possession,” Sundermann said. “At the back, we were a little loose.”

The visitors went home happy in this exciting and action-packed game.