Delafuente’s monster day carries Pointers

It started raining hard toward the end of Van Buren’s 6A state soccer opener with Southside Thursday morning at Conway High School. But the rain wasn’t coming from the sky. It was coming in the form of the unstoppable Isaac Delafuente’s powerful left foot. The Van Buren junior scored four of his five goals in the second half to carry the Pointers to a 6-1 win over the Mavericks — the Pointers’ first postseason win in more than six years. “That first half, after we scored that one goal, we got comfortable and came out strong in the second half and played to the best of our ability,” Delafuente said. “Southside’s a really good team, but we came out and showed them that we’re a better team.” The Pointers, who hadn’t won a post-season game since reaching the quarterfinals in 2013, made the most of Southside’s lone mistake in the first half when the quick Delafuente got a step on a defender and, before he was able to unleash his powerful kick, was brought to the ground. With just 3:07 left in the first half, Delafuente slipped one past Mavericks’ keeper Salomon Amador, and, save a 10-minute halftime cooling off period, the skies literally opened up. “Getting that PK in the first half, to get us to 1-0, that was huge,” Van Buren coach Nathan Almond said. “We weren’t playing good soccer; we were playing kickball. I felt like Southside was doing the same thing; we were just sort of kicking back and forth. I felt like we came out the second half and possessed the ball a little bit better and did a better job of creating opportunities.” Did they ever. Freshman Fernando Romero’s goal just barely 90 seconds into the second half gave the Pointers some breathing room. But Delafuente was just getting warmed up, too. His goal in the 43rd minute extended the lead to 3-0. And whatever momentum the Mavericks might have gotten, by battling the Pointers to just a 1-0 score at the half, was fading quickly. Van Buren (13-9) extended its lead to 4-0 in the 58th minute when freshman Jimmy Viella set up Delafuente for his third goal. “I thought nerves played a role with him (Delafuente) early in the game,” Almond said. “He was having a hard time holding his feet. He (Delafuente) gets that PK, Fernando gets that second goal, and it just seemed like the pressure came off them after that.” The 6-foot, 160-pound Delafuente, who long ago broke Van Buren’s old single-season goals record (22), scored his 38th and 39th goals in the 2019 season with two more kicks at the 69th and 76th minute of Thursday’s win.

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DELAFUENTE’S MONSTER DAY CARRIES POINTERS

KEVIN TAYLOR

Times Record | 5/10/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy Photo