Fultondale’s Raul Jaimes (left) battles with Parkway Christian defender Brian Newell for the ball in Fultondale’s 10-0 mercy-rule win Monday afternoon. The victory clinched the sectional championship in the team’s very first year of play.

By Robert Carter

The North Jefferson News



The objective seemed easy enough. All that Fultondale’s boys soccer team had to do to wrap up a Class 1A-4A Section 4 championship in the squad’s first-ever season of play was to beat a team that they had already whipped by the 10-goal mercy rule. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

Well — yes, it was.

After toying with the visitors for most of the first half, the Wildcats unleashed a barrage of eight goals in the second half to put away Parkway Christian 10-0 in 76 minutes.

With the win, Fultondale (9-1-1, 8-0 section) officially claims the sectional title, as well as its ninth straight victory.

Parkway, whose roster had been reduced to the bare minimum of 11 players, still defended aggressively early on, with particular attention paid to leading goalscorer Gustavo Ezquerra. Fultondale midfielder Sal Varela didn’t even start the match, but when he did enter about 16 minutes in, Parkway turned its defensive attention to him as well, often double-teaming him.

Despite the extra attention, Varela scored the game’s first tally in the 21st minute, beating out two Parkway defenders on his way to the net.

Two minutes later, David Morales also scored on a wide-open breakaway that caught Parkway goalkeeper Isaiah Glasgow flat-footed.

Fultondale turned up the heat after halftime, with Marcel Samuels’ goal two minutes into the second half being the first of four goals in nine minutes’ time. Among those were a pair of scores by Raul Martinez and the first of two from Ezquerra.

The Wildcats took advantage of a man-up situation when Parkway’s Terry Smith was injured when he took a kicked ball in the face. He went off for medical attention, and since there were no available substitutes left, Parkway was forced to play with 10 men until Smith returned about 15 minutes later.

After a lull, Fultondale finished things off with another four-goal barrage, with scores from Ezquerra and Varela, and finally a pair from Ernesto Valladares Jr., who had been the Cats’ keeper most of the way but was switched to forward late.

With the win, Fultondale locks up home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs next Tuesday. The bad news is their opponent will be Altamont, the second-ranked team in the Class 1A-4A state soccer coaches’ poll.

‰ Fultondale 2, St. Clair County 0: Ezquerra scored two more goals, one on an assist by Varela and another unassisted score, as the Wildcats moved to within one victory of a sweep of the sectional schedule.

Ezquerra took a crossing pass from Varela at the top of the 18-yard box and put it past Saints keeper Lee Blackwood one minute after halftime. Ezquerra then intercepted a Saints pass at midfield and fired a shot past Blackwood from 30 yards out.

Valladares had seven saves in goal for the Cats. Blackwood finished with 11 saves.