Freshman scores hat trick for Neuqua Valley

If his teammates had any doubts before, they believe in freshman striker Ryan Ross now.

Ross tallied a second-half hat trick, and the Wildcats rallied to defeat host Metea Valley 3-1 Tuesday night in Aurora.

“It’s really good because at first they were a little bit iffy, like what’s this freshman kid doing on the team?” Ross said of his older teammates reactiton to him. “Now they’ve got some trust in me, hopefully more after this game.”

Metea Valley got off to a great start, taking a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute when sophomore midfielder Nate Donovan slotted a through-ball to senior striker Ryan Solomon at the top of the Neuqua Valley penalty area. Solomon turned and followed the ball through, keeping a Wildcats defender on his left hip as he blasted his seventh goal of the season into the net.

“He took a great goal,” Neuqua Valley coach Tony Kees said of Solomon. “Perfect-touch through ball, screened off our defender. That’s a big-time goal. He’s a difference-maker, and he’s going to score a lot of goals.”

But the Mustangs (4-1-2, 0-1 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division) couldn’t build on the early goal.

“To be honest I think the whole team thought after we got that first goal we were going to keep running through it,” Solomon said. “I really hoped that would get our momentum going, change stuff up, but it kind of broke down in the second half.”

“We haven’t been scoring in the first half, we’ve struggled in first halves, so to get a goal early, sometimes it’s almost tougher,” Mustangs coach Josh Robinson said. “We kind of sat back a little bit after that first goal.”

Neuqua Valley (5-2-1, 2-0) broke through in a hurry starting in the 54th minute when Metea Valley couldn’t clear Brian Benjamin’s service into the penalty area and Ross pounced on the loose ball. Two minutes later Ross gave the Wildcats a lead when he chipped the ball just under the crossbar.

“He brings a lot of energy, doesn’t he?” Kees asked. “He buzzes around and he’s pesky, and then after a while the defenders start hearing footsteps and maybe they make a mistake. He finds a way to sneak in behind guys. He’s got a reasonable touch for a finish and nice goals tonight. But they were all earned because he works hard, and he’s garnered a lot of respect from our players. They trust him.”

Ross put the game away with his third goal, fourth of the season, in the 78th minute.

“It’s undescribable,” Ross said. “This is my third game with the team, and to get a hat trick in the third game and in one half is amazing.”