By Trevor King Sports Editor Preston County News & Journal
KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Preston suffered a 5-2 setback to the visiting Moorefield Yellow Jackets Tuesday night thanks to a hat trick by Javier Acosta.
All three of Acosta’s goals came in the decisive second half, putting the nail in the coffin of what was an overall flat performance from the Knights.
“This was just a terrible performance,” Preston coach Joshua Russell said. “We just did not put in the effort. Several guys almost seemed like they didn’t want to be there and were just going through the motions. It was incredibly disappointing.
“You have to give credit to Moorefield though, because they 100 percent deserved the win. They played harder than us, and they got the result they deserved.”
The second half overshadowed what was a fairly bright start for the Knights as Mason Bunce opened the scoring on a one-on-one break to put the hosts up 1-0 just seven minutes into the match.
Moorefield answered against the run of play, however, when Chernet Anseni launched a free kick from the right side of the pitch that sailed over the keeper and into the far-side netting to tie it at 1-1 at the 18:07 mark in the first half.
Preston responded by regaining the lead with 12:42 until the break when Coen Thomas scored an Olimpico — a goal directly from a corner kick — as his in-swinging ball curved directly into the back side of the net.
Moorefield brought it to level terms again with a hair under four minutes before the half when Austin Arbaugh took advantage of a defensive miscue, made it into the box, and tapped it around the charging keeper to net it home.
“We started off okay in the first five minutes, but then as the game went on, we just flat-out got outworked,” Russell said. “There’s no other way to put it, and there’s no excuse, and the boys know it.”
Acosta put the Yellow Jackets ahead off a Danny Guifarro assist with 32:45 to go. He then bagged a second when he dribbled nearly 40 yards weaving through the Preston defense which culminated in a clean finish with the outside of his foot to make it 4-2 with 23:38 to play.
He would complete his hat trick when he won the ball in the attacking third and banged it home with 1:19 to go.
“That’s been the Achilles heel this early in the season; our inability to win fifty-fifty balls,” Russell said. “We keep losing one-on-one battles in the air especially, and it’s just unfortunate.
“I told them just now, we’re not going to see this again and we’re not going to let this happen again. It’s one thing to lose, but it’s another thing entirely to lose because you got outworked. That’s highly disappointing.”
Preston will look to bounce back Thursday when it hosts Keyser at 5 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the girls’ squad (their start is at 7 p.m.).
