North Salem Hands Silverton First Loss Of Year

By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ALEM, Ore.– It didn’t take long for North Salem to capitalize on a few Silverton mistakes in their 3-1 victory over the Foxes Tuesday night.

The Vikings had already built some momentum going into the second half, having pressured Silverton over the course of the final 15 minutes of the half coming off of the Foxes five-minute stretch of pressure between the 20^th and 25^th minutes.

But for North Salem, success came after an own goal a minute into the second half and an Alex Lupian goal four minutes later that had swung momentum in favor of the Vikings early in the second half.

“It’s huge man, it’s what we’re working on. We want to take the league and we want to make it to state,” North Salem’s Noah Jacobo said.

Silverton Head Coach Marty Limbird pointed towards the Vikings ability to own the possession, which North Salem played to as the game progressed between the two Mid-Willamette Conference unbeaten teams. They had to stay disciplined as a team, but the Viks had capitalized when they needed to.

In a span of eight minutes, between the 41st and 49th minute, the game went from 0-0 to 2-1 in favor of North Salem as the Vikings improve to 5-0 in Mid-Willamette Conference play (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

“They got the best of us. We made a couple of mistakes; they capitalized and scored a couple of goals. Two of their three goals were errors on our part that they then took advantage of and made sure they got it in the back of the net,” Limbird said.

The Foxes cut the two-goal deficit in half by the 49^th minute by way of a Carlos Flores goal with the scoring tapering off. Both teams traded runs in the rainy conditions, but couldn’t land a blow in either direction.

That was, until the 71^st minute in which Jacobo pushed North Salem’s lead back to two with minutes left in the game before snapping Silverton’s nine-game unbeaten streak.

For the Vikings, their nine-game streak of their own has dated back to their opening season defeat to Southridge. There belief in each other and in the process that Head Coach Salvador Maciel has been instilling this season, hoping that their goal of league and making it to state comes to fruition.

“We have a great team, we believe in each other, we’re all brothers. We’re here for each other, we’re working for each other and that’s what is going to get us there,” Jacbo said. “We just gotta keep trusting the process, trusting coach, trusting each other and hopefully we’ll get there.”

Photos By Jeremy McDonald