Late Goal Sinks Stars 7-6 in Monterrey

January 22, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – Tacoma Stars News Release

Tacoma Stars’ Nick Perera in action
(Tacoma Stars)

MONTERREY, MX. – The Stars (4-3-0) completed their weekend road trip through Mexico with a stop in Monterrey to face the Flash (6-2-1) on Sunday at Arena Monterrey. The game featured four separate tie scores and ultimately was decided by Daniel Villela’s second goal of the night for the Flash, this one in the game’s final two minutes to stop the Stars by a 7-6 final.

There was a lone goal in the first quarter, the first of three by Monterrey’s Luis Genaro Castillo which started the scoring and gave the Flash a 1-0 lead which they carried to the 2nd quarter of play.

Villela’s first goal of the day doubled the home team’s lead 18 seconds into the 2nd frame and served as a wake-up call for the Stars who rattled off the next three goals.

The first was an unassisted effort by Nick Perera, reaching out with his right foot to bounce the ball past Flash keeper Christian Hernandez to get the Stars on the board at 2-1 with 11:14 to play in the opening half.

Tacoma equalized the game at 2-2 on a nifty pass from Cory Keitz to Logan Jones for the first of his two goals in the game with 8:23 on the clock in the half. For Jones, it was his second career multi-goal goal game.

An unassisted marker from Stars veteran Philip Lund with 1:20 on the clock put Tacoma in front by a 3-2 score after the first 30 minutes of play.

The game’s first penalty led to a penalty kick opportunity for the Flash after Tacoma’s Alex Caceres drew a blue card for tripping. Luis Angel Mendoza lined up for the PK and fired the ball past Tacoma keeper Danny Waltman to level the game 3-3.

Less than 30 seconds later the scene was reversed after Villela was whistled for tripping setting up Tacoma with a penalty kick. Hernandez stopped the attempt and Monterrey was able to kill the penalty before taking the lead again.

Castillo’s second of the game temporarily put the Flash up by one at 4-3 but the lead did not last long.

Mike Ramos drove a low shot that ricocheted off a Flash defender and into the back of the net 23 seconds later to drive the game into the final quarter tied 4-4.

A game that saw five goals total in the first half produced five in just the 4th quarter with the first two going Monterrey’s way.

First, it was Castillo who completed his hat trick before Ivan Monroy scored less than a minute later to put the Flash in front 6-4 with 8:32 remaining.

A restart goal by…