Pictured: Taine Garner makes a move for the Eagles in the recent match against Blinn.
By: Justin Hargrove, Assistant Athletic Director
The Northeast Texas Community College Soccer teams hosted Blinn Junior College on Saturday in the 2021 Conference opener. The NTCC Women would start the season off with a 2-1 victory over the Buccaneers, while the Men’s team from NTCC eared a 1-0 victory over Blinn.
This was the first Fall home game since the 2019 season as COVID forced all teams to play in the spring of 2021 this last year. After the short off season and more COVID related game cancellations this fall already, the Eagles returned to conference play with only one scrimmage under their belt.
Weather was also a factor on Saturday as a brief rain shower moved through during the women’s match, causing some footing issues the remainder of the day.
The NTCC women would go up 1-0 quickly, five minutes into the contest, when Marissa Garcia (Richmond, Texas) passed the ball to Chloe Johnson (Huntington Beach, CA) giving her a one on one opportunity against the Blinn Goalie. Johnson sent the ball to the net passed the goalie to put the Eagles up early in the contest.
Later in the first half (28th minute) Garcia was rewarded for her earlier assist when Sofia Rojas (Columbia) played the ball to her and she scored goal number two for NTCC.
The Buccaneers got on the board in the second half of the game to cut the lead to 2-1, but NTCC Goalie Naphtaline Clermeus (Haiti) was able to keep Blinn off the board anymore with eight saves in the game.
The NTCC Men followed the Women’s victory with a 1-0 win over Blinn in the second game of the day for the soccer program.
David Imbert (France) got his first goal as an Eagle when Taine Garner (United Kingdom) passed him the ball at the thirteen-minute mark of the game to score the lone goal of the game for either team.
The Eagles were led defensively by Sam Pidgeon (United Kingdom), Miguel Alvarez (Cypress, Texas), Thomas Brulay (France) and goalie Raul Torrez (Longview, Texas) who had five saves in the contest.
Both teams will take travel to Jacksonville, Texas on Wednesday for another conference game followed by a trip to Angelina College on Saturday. You can keep up with NTCC soccer by going to www.ntcceagles.com . Subscribe to our YouTube channel, NTCC Soccer ’21.
