XOLOITZCUINTLES UNDER-17 EARNS WIN AT HOME

TIJUANA - Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente’s Under a 2-1 win over the league leading Santos Laguna in Week 9 action of the Apertura 2014 youth tournament. With the win the Xolos continued their fight and remain inside of the playoff zone.

Edgar Lopez (41^st minute) and Jesus Angulo (60^th) scored for the Xoloitzcuintles.

“[The win], it leaves me satisfied,” said Club Tijuana’s Edgar Ivan Lopez. “Unfortunately, we went down in the game but we didn’t drop out heads and kept fighting.”

Both sides looked to push forward from the opening whistle and it created a nice back and forth rhythm to the match in the early minutes. The Xoloitzcuintles were able to take control of the match after about 15 minutes.  Club Tijuana began to pressure into Santos’ side of the pitch but couldn’t generate any dangerous plays.

Lopez did create a dangerous play to open the scoring in the 30th minute when he was fed a through ball and was left to face the Santos goalkeeper on a one-on-one play but the goalkeeper came up with the save.

“Yeah, unfortunately, I couldn’t score that one.” said Lopez about the play. “A few minutes later they scored but we just kept fighting.”

The visiting Santos began to pressure after a close call and eventually found the opening goal in the 35th minute of play with a strong shot from Uriel Antuna.

It took Club Tijuana a few minutes to find the equalizer and it was Lopez who tied the match

“I was immensely happy because it was my first goal here,” Lopez said.

The Xoloitzcuintles continued pressing in the second half and 15 minutes into it found a dangerous play where Lopez was pushed from behind, provoking the center referee to award a penalty. Angulo stepped up and converted the PK for the Xoloitzcuintles second goal to seal the win.  

Santos took the extra point in the standings after wining the post match penalty shootout

Next up for the Xoloitzcuintles Under-17 squad coached by Marco Marroquin is a trip to the southern port of Veracruz for a Week 10 match with Tiburones Rojos.