It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t graceful, but it sure was colorful.

The Spanish Springs Cougars took a 2-0 victory over non-league rival Galena on Grizzlies turf in boys prep soccer action Saturday and they did it with flair.

It was a clash of black and white, SSHS wearing white jerseys with purple numbers while GHS sported black jerseys with white stripes. However, the teams brightened up the game with neon colored cleats, a few elbows, a yellow card and yelling coaches. Between the two squads, they wore white, black, blue, green, neon orange, yellow and bright red cleats.

The Cougars (1-1) came out tough against an aggressive Grizzlies squad and netted a goal three minutes into the match. The Cougars got down the field in a hurry and earned a corner kick. The set piece was unsuccessful but the Cougs kept possession when the ball was knocked outside the 18-yard box. It was chipped in front of the goal and Cougars forward Corey Tague blasted a volley into the upper right corner of the goal, giving Spanish Springs the early 1-0 lead.

The first half was otherwise quiet, scoring wise but that was the only way in which it was quiet. Galena played aggressive defense and it seemed during every close possession there was plenty of pushing, pulling and tugging between opposing players.

“We’re learning and just getting better,” first-year Cougars coach Rob Moreland said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, just get better and learn about each other’s play.

“I’m the new guy. I’ve got guys I don’t even know so that’s the thing, learning about each other and working on teamwork.”

Set pieces came in handy for the local squad’s offense Saturday afternoon. They earned another corner kick, taken by Alex Garcia, who sent a nearly perfect ball to Luis Guzman, who headed it in around the keeper to account for the final 2-0 score. That second Spanish Springs score came in the 45th minute of the game.

After that, the Grizzlies were goal hungry and desperate to try and cut down the Cougars’ lead. They kept the pace erratic while trying to set up for a decent shot but were interrupted by quite a few penalties called on Spanish Springs. The game turned into a pinball machine game with balls and miscued shots flying everywhere.

“I don’t think we played very well,” Galena’s assistant coach Jeff Howell said. “We couldn’t get our offense going. We tried forcing it down the middle too much and not playing to feet.”

Eder Zomoza was a major bright spot in the ugly and penalty-filled second half. The Spanish Springs goalkeeper was solid all the way through for the Cougars. He made quite a few athletic and difficult saves, jumping over the tops of the Grizzly offense to punch the ball out on an incoming corner kick.

“We played great soccer,” Moreland said. “We touched it around and took care of our chances, played tight defense.”

Girls

Spanish Springs settled for a 1-1 tie against Galena. The Cougars scored first with a goal by Carly Pengelly. She made a run and received a ball up the middle from Angie Dyette in the 45th minute. That was Spanish Springs’ only shot on goal.

Galena evened it up with a goal of its own to tie the game. The south Reno school had 10 shots, eight on goal. SSHS keeper Erica Lorenz had seven saves.

“We’re missing quite a few key players from our team due to injuries and some college visitations,” SSHS assistant Bernie Dow said. “We’re happy with a tie, its preseason. We saw what we needed to see.”

The Cougars play at Tuesday home, against Reno at 7 p.m.