The Summit High School boys soccer team is off to a historic start. With the team’s 6-0 win over the Palisade Bulldogs on Saturday, Sept. 10 the team now matches its best start the program has had since the fall 2012 season when the team started off 5-1.

On Saturday, the Tigers were nothing short of dominant. The team started with the energy and confidence that comes from winning three straight games on the road. In the first few minutes of the game, the Tigers advanced the ball down the field and set up chances in front of the net. 

Two and a half minutes into the opening half, junior Erick Barahona found himself in front of the net, with open space and fired the ball past the Bulldogs goaltender to go up 1-0.

The Tigers continued to attack following the Barahona goal. Seven minutes later, junior Mark Mervel sent a shot in between a group of Palisade defenders and into the back of the net to give the Tigers an early 2-0 lead.

The Tigers stellar offensive performance was met by the same energy on the defensive side of the ball. Junior Jared Marcer, junior Jack Stafford, sophomore Reece Bosgraaf, senior Christian Skowron and senior captain Evan Reil all did their job to shut down the Bulldogs offense, not allowing a shot on goal for the majority of the half.  

At the end of the half, the Tigers widened its lead when senior captain Owen Gallo delicately dribbled through the Palisade defense to go up 3-0 heading into halftime. 

In the second half the Tigers continued to play like it did in the first half, seeing plenty of opportunities in front of the net while limiting the Bulldogs offensive opportunities.

Fabian Cuevas put the Tigers up by four goals — 13 minutes into the second half — firmly putting the game out of reach for the Bulldogs. 

For the remainder of the game,Summit worked to drain the clock while still putting pressure on Palisade. Palisade had a few opportunities in front of the net but were always stopped by the Summit defense.

This nonstop, attacking pressure from Summit resulted in two more goals for the team before the end of the game with Barahona scoring both to put the Tigers up 6-0. The two goals by  Barahona completed his hat trick performance with three goals to his name on the day. 

Following the hat trick performance from Barahona, the Tigers closed out the rest of the game winning its fourth straight game in a row, 6-0.

“Two shutout wins in a row,” Skowron said. “We have been working hard defensively and working as a unit. I think we are getting there and the last two games we have shown that. Today was a lot of hard work.”

The Tigers will host Evergreen High School on Tuesday,Sept. 13 and then will travel to Eagle Valley High School on Thursday, Sept. 15. If Summit can win one or both games the team will have the best start it has had in the last 10 years.

“One of our big goals heading into the season was to make the playoffs again —two years in a row — and then obviously do well in the league this year,”  Skowron said. “This was a league game so now we are 3-1 in the league. That is a strong start. That will help us get to the playoffs and hopefully host a playoff game.”

The Tigers’ game against Evergreen on Tuesday, Sept 15 is scheduled to kickoff at 6 p.m.