Hamilton Southeastern’s Jonathan Ramos Perez scored two goals for the Royals during their Tuesday win at Westfield. (Richie Hall)
By RICHIE HALL
WESTFIELD – Now that the Hamilton Southeastern boys soccer team has figured out its formations, things are starting to click for the Royals.
Southeastern traveled to Westfield Tuesday and rolled to a 4-0 Hoosier Crossroads Conference win over the Shamrocks. The Royals are 2-1-2 in the conference – “everyone’s chasing Brownsburg,” said HSE coach Chris White – but a strong finish in the league is still a possibility.
“Coming in tonight, we can still finish anywhere from second to seventh,” said White. The Royals are presently third in the league standings, behind the first-place Bulldogs (5-0) and second-place Fishers (3-1-2).
Southeastern scored its first goal in the first half, with Cooper Perez finding the back of the net. Alfie Kraft gave the Royals a 2-0 lead with 31 minutes left in the second half. Jonathan Ramos Perez then took over, putting in two goals during the game’s final 26 minutes.
With that, Southeastern tied its highest-scoring game of the year. The Royals also scored four goals in their season opener against Mt. Vernon. White said his team “changed formations around a lot” during the early part of the season, finally getting settled in “about four or five games ago,” he said.
“I put it on me, because I didn’t know how we needed to play,” said White. The coach said it took “four or five games for me to see guys in game action to get it figured out. We had some hiccups and some up-and-down performances during that time, but we’re starting to come together and roll at the right time.”
For example, Gavin Boyle was a back force for the past few years, but he was moved “up top because he creates havoc up there,” said White. Southeastern has also been scoring goals by committee: Ramos Perez’ two goals brought him to a season total of four. Jose Charris also has four goals for the season, so they are now tied for leading scorer honors. Ten HSE players have scored at least one goal.
“Because we don’t have one guy that’s going to score for us all the time, it’s got to be ball movement, it’s got to be as a unit,” said White. “And they’re starting to see things that we’ve been talking about.”
“I think our effort level was there,” said Westfield coach Eric Cupp. “I think we picked up our passing in the second half. Our first half, we did not look connected. Looked more connected in the second half.”
Cupp credited several players with good games and said his seniors “put in a ton of effort tonight,” including Ian Lam and Michael O’Rourke. He also credited junior goalkeeper Mack Keefer with playing well, saying “he plays a great game every game. He was distributing the ball really well. He was covering up things that we were letting through.”
Southeastern is 7-2-3 overall and goes back on the road Thursday for another HCC game at Noblesville. Westfield is 2-3 in conference play and 4-5-1 overall; the Rocks travel to Carmel Thursday.
