The squads remained tied, and scoreless, through the first half and into the second half.
Reed senior Marco Licciardi broke the stalemate in the 47th minute with an impressive goal. Francisco Hererra picked up a ball kicked out to the sidelines and smashed it back into the middle. Licciardi was ready for the pass and launched himself backward for an incredible bicycle kick goal and a 1-0 RHS lead.
“The first goal was amazing,” Reed coach Jeff Valentine said. “It's probably the best goal I've seen being a coach. From what I was told, Marco did one in his freshman year and he's going to end off in his senior year doing the same thing. It was an awesome bicycle kick.”
The goal proved to break the game open for the Raiders offensively.
In the 66th minute, Rica Martinez had a tough shot, which was blocked by Cougars' goalkeeper Eder Zamoza. Zamoza's block went straight up into the air. Dylan Valentine followed it and managed to get his head on it and punch the ball into the net to give Reed a 2-0 advantage.
“We just ran out of gas,” Spanish Springs coach Rob Moreland said. “We battled as long as we could.”
The Raiders weren't quite done.
With just under 10 minutes left in the game, Martinez had the ball in the midfield and gave a smooth pass off to Valentine, who was streaking through the middle of the field on a breakaway. With a defender on his tail, Valentine took a calming touch and punched a shot into the lower right corner for a 3-0 edge that Spanish Springs could not overcome.
Spanish Springs (10-4-4, 1-8-1 HDL) has the weekend off. It has just one league game left on the season. The Cougars will host McQueen Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The Cougars will not advance to the postseason this year.
Reed (7-0-3 HDL) on the other hand, has two matches left. It will host Reno Saturday at 1 p.m. Then it travels to North Valleys Tuesday to close out league play. A pair of Raiders wins lock up a third straight league title for Reed.
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