February 19, 2003

Cazenave's hat trick downs Ouachita

By Joe Halm
Sports Correspondent
(Photo by JOE HALM)

Everybody says it, "just use your head."

Tiger Brad Cazenave took that advice and headed in three goals en route to a 5-0 opening round playoff victory over the Ouachita Christian Lions.

"A couple of our guys are good in the air, and we used that tonight," Tiger head coach Rafael deVega said.

Early in the game Cazenave headed in the ball off the foot of Matt Harmon to put the Tigers up by one.

Cazenave found the nylon again off a corner kick from Brandon Guillory.

The two headers put the Tigers up 2-0.

"My guys are just not used to this level of competition," Lions head coach Deanne Free said. "I have a lot of good athletes, but it is hard to prepare them for something that they haven't seen before."

The Tigers’ third goal of the evening came off a bad goal kick. The Lions’ keeper sent an errant kick up the middle of the field and into the possession of the Tigers, who sent the ball back into the box.

Harmon fought into the box and around the keeper who was caught out of position. Harmon touched the box over the goal line and into the back of the net.

Cazenave completed his hat trick with another header, this one from the left side of the six-yard box. The corner kick was placed perfectly and Cazenave finished off the connection bouncing it into the goal.

The Lions also suffered through some recent injuries.

"We had a really bad week," she said. "Four of our players suffered injuries, and today three of my players were having stomach problems."

The Tigers also faced the problem of finding out information about the team on the other side of the field.

"We played pretty well," deVega said. "We really didn't know what to expect, but we did a good job tonight."

The Tigers cooled in the second half as the Lions played tougher defense.

The only goal of the half came off a rebound. The corner kick flew into the box and Jeff Kerlec fired point blank into the keeper, who made the tough save on his knees but allowed the rebound.

Alex Romero was in perfect position and nailed the ball to the back of the net.

According to Free, the Lions learned from their first half mistakes.

"I have a lot of good athletes on this team," she said. "They're not used to the game at this level but once we pointed out their mistakes, they started to make some adjustments."

According to deVega, the Tigers have to focus on two keys for the rest of the playoffs.

"Number one, we need to have a little bit of good fortune," he said. "And number two, we need to stay healthy. We have a couple of guys a little banged up, but hopefully they can get healthy before the next game."