By Joseph Staszewski
Despite a hard-fought tie with rival Aviation, Bryant remains in control of its own destiny in PSAL Queens A West soccer.
The Owls played well enough that they could have won in the second half, but had to settle for an important 1-1 tie after two overtimes. Bryant had won the first meeting with Aviation 4-2, but needed a second half score from Ricardo Llanos to keep a slim one-point lead over the Flyers in the standings with three games to play.
“Aviation was right on our tail,” Llanos said. “If they would have won, that would have been our division right there. This tie definitely helps us.”
The senior forward kept that from happening. He leapt up and perfectly headed in a corner kick from Daniel Gutierrez in the 48th minute. He put the ball just to the left of Aviation keeper Andy Lucero, who was superb all afternoon. Llanos, who has 14 goals this season, was better on that play by doing as he was told.
“I ran in and headed it down like my coach tells me,” he said.
The damage could have been much worse for Aviation (7-1-1) had it not been for Lucero, who made 10 saves. He stopped a Llanos shot and then blocked Kiran Lama’s attempt to kick home the rebound late in the first half. The sophomore gobbled up blasts from 25-30 yards out all afternoon from Bryant, which dominated the second half. Owls senior Roger Juca hit the crossbar with a booming shot from 30 yards minutes before Llanos scored.
“They are really fast,” said Lucero, who was playing on a tender ankle. “We had trouble with them. I had to block a lot of shots against them.”
He was one of four Aviation starters playing despite injuries, including star midfielder Jonathan Jaramillo, Charlie Morales and Alejandro Suarez. They pressured Bryant (7-0-2) in the first half, but only had the one goal to show for it. The Flyers, who got an early first half goal from Kevin Fragoso, thought they could have played better, but could live with the result.
“Not what I wanted, but I’m pleased,” Aviation Coach Mario Cotumaccio said.
Bryant left a little bit happier because first place was still theirs, and the Owls would win a tiebreaker in terms of playoff seed because of their victory earlier this season over Aviation.
“They had a different attitude,” Owls Coach Bryon Ortiz said of his second half demeanor. “They wanted to win because this probably means the division championship.”
