‘Nacho’ devours Vikes

By JOHN NASH

Hour Staff Writer

NORWALK — There are certain things in life that seem impossible to do. Try putting a shoe lace through a needle hole. Or driving a Greyhound bus down the Merritt Parkway.

Or, for that matter, dribbling a soccer ball into a corner, somehow getting past two defenders who seemingly have you trapped, only to maintain control near the endline before cutting inward at the near post. Then, with a goalkeeper diving at your feet, you just toe the ball just inside the far post for a goal.

The latter of those three things actually happened on Saturday afternoon at Testa Field as Norwalk’s Ignacio “Nacho” Navarro performed the tricky maneuver, notching the Bears third straight goal to cap off a come-from-behind effort and a 3-2 victory over Westhill.

“I had a one-two off the throw in and I just tried to take it all the way down the line,” said Navarro, whose tally came with almost 14 minutes to play.” My intention was to cross the ball and I had a big touch and I then I saw I could cut in. I didn’t have an angle, but I just tried to get it to the far post. I’m just happy I got the goal.”

The tally capped a furious Norwalk comeback as Westhill came out following a scoreless first half and scored twice in four minutes to take a 2-0 lead on the Bears.

Instead of going flat, though, the Bears dug deep.

Nick Zuniga took a give-and­go pass from Navarro and scored with 29 minutes left to play, getting Norwalk on the board.

“We were down 2-0, but we were still in the game,” Zuniga said. “Once we got that first goal, we knew we’d get more. We just kept our same formation, tried to possess the ball as much as we could. We were patient and took advantage of our opportunities.”

The Bears had a couple of corner kick opportunities, as well, but just couldn’t finish.

They finally got the equalizer when Chris Puente sent an over-the-top pass to Kevin Joslyn, who was breaking toward the goal. Joslyn stayed onside, gained control of the ball and with a defender right off his hip, fired a low shot just under the left arm of Westhill’s goalkeeper to tie the game.

“Just the fact we fought back from two goals down is amazing,” said Joslyn. ” We created a bond with this win. We were down two unlucky goals, but we fought back. We needed this and we got a great win today.” A few minutes later it was Nacho Time and the Bears had the lead. ” I’m so proud of these guys for not giving up,” said Norwalk head coach Chris Laughton. ” We had to prove we can win a tight game and this will just build our strength and help make us a better team. After the first goal, they wanted more. It was an attitude of let’s win this game.”

Just don’t give Navarro the keys to the bus. Who knows what he might try next?

© The Hour Newspaper.