Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Bainbridge Decatur County Recreation Authority’s U19 Academy Team, Inter Bainbridge, traveled to Enterprise, Alabama on Saturday, September 4 for a pair of matches against Enterprise Soccer Club.

In the opening match, Inter Bainbridge prevailed with a 2-1 scoreline. After some back and forth exchanges in the opening minutes, Inter Bainbridge struck first in the 15th minute when Javier Salgado sent a pass over the top of the Enterprise midfielders and defenders for striker Miguel Vargas-Dominguez to run onto. Vargas-Dominguez outpaced the backline of defense and finished the play by firing the ball into the back of the net to give Inter Bainbridge the early 1-0 advantage. The score remained 1-0 until the 55th minute when a shot was made on the Bainbridge goal from the right flank that squirted through the hands of Inter’s keeper, Dax Willis. Following a brief water break, Inter Bainbridge took the kick-off, and Javier Salgado played another ball over the top of the Enterprise defenders and into the path of Vargas-Dominguez. Vargas-Dominguez took the ball down the left flank, and he blasted a shot from an impossible angle towards the Enterprise goal, rendering the Enterprise keeper totally helpless to stop it. Inter Bainbridge went on to see the match out for a 2-1 victory from there.

In the second match, Inter Bainbridge experienced a 5-2 defeat. Enterprise came out firing and found themselves with a 2-0 lead within the first ten minutes of the match following a headed goal from a corner kick opportunity in the 4th minute and a lofted crossing pass that found its way into the goal in the 7th minute. Things did not improve so much from there as Inter Bainbridge got stretched defensively from front to back in the 21st minute, which allowed Enterprise an opportunity on goal for which they did not squander. In the 25th minute, Enterprise got a fourth goal when Inter defender Ethan Daughtry inadvertently scored an own goal when attempting to clear the ball from danger. The score at halftime was 4-0, but Inter Bainbridge had some fight left in them. Just minutes into the second half of the match, Humberto Lee sent a ball through to Miguel Vargas-Dominguez for Inter’s first goal of the match. Only moments later, with Inter on the attack, Vargas-Dominguez was brought down in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty kick. He converted the penalty kick to cut Enterprise’s lead in half and give Inter Bainbridge some hope of a comeback. However, in the closing minutes of the match, Enterprise extinguished that hope when they scored their fifth and final goal of the match. They went on to close out the match and preserve a 5-2 victory.

Coach Jamie Ard made the following comments regarding Saturday’s match.

“Enterprise Soccer Club is a quality team. They played tough the first match, but we were able to prevail in the end. In the second match, I think a few things happened. First, I decided to open up the match with a totally different formation than we have played because I wanted to experiment a little. That turned out to be poor judgment on my part, and when we switched back to our “normal” formation, it was too late because the damage was done. Second, I think we were too confident following our opening victory. Third, we totally lost our composure and focus when adversity struck. So, we all can learn several things from this loss, so I cannot classify it as a total loss since there are several take-aways that will help us improve in the future.”