GENTRY -- The Decatur Bulldogs traveled south to take on the Gentry Pioneers in a 4A-1 conference match April 14 at Pioneer Stadium in Gentry.
The Pioneers were 2 and 3 in conference play while the Bulldogs were 0 and 4 going into Thursday's match.
Decatur played with only 11 players, the precise number needed on the field. This put the Bulldogs at a serious disadvantage that translated into no available substitutes should a player sustain an injury. Every Decatur player would have to play the full 80 minutes of the match without a rest. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, no players were injured in the course of the match.
The Bulldogs' defense managed to hold the Pioneers to a single goal in the first half. But Decatur failed to capitalize on the defense's hard work and put the ball in the net for a tie or go ahead point.
Two minutes into the second half, Gentry kicked the ball past Decatur goal keeper Sebastian Perez for the second goal of the match.
Perez repelled several Pioneer scoring attempts through much of the first 18 minutes of the second half, but Gentry finally scored a pair of back-to-back goals late in the half, putting them up by four. The Pioneers scored three more times before the match ended, taking a 7 to 0 conference victory against Decatur.
Sports on 05/04/2016