Carlos Montes becomes first player in franchise history to score twice in a single game.
Tucson, AZ (Friday, July 6, 2012) — Just before halftime in FC Tucson’s 3-0 win over BYU, Rick Schantz reminded his players to close the second post. That was all the advice Carlos Montes needed.
“The first cross we had, I made sure I was there,” Montes said.
Montes become the first player in FC Tucson history to score twice in a game and both times he scored his goals near the second post from crosses by his teammates Donny Toia (46th minute) and Ricardo Velasco (49th minute).
“Carlos has had a great week in training,” Schantz said. “For us it was just a matter of finding the right area for him. And he got some great services. That second goal was world class.”
FC Tucson began the half up 1-0 thanks to a clinical James Cohn header in the 35th minute. Then just after the second half kick off, Toia received a pass about five yards outside the left corner of the goal box and took off toward the endline before sending a cross toward the far post where Montes was waiting to slot the ball into the back of the net.
Montes’ second goal was almost a mirror image of the first goal and it happened just three minutes later. This time Ricardo Velasco, a signee from the Real Salt Lake Academy, found Montes with his cross to put the game away for good in front of a crowd of 574.
“I think we relaxed a little bit more when we had the ball and made sure to move it more instead of sending in all these long balls every single time,” Montes said. “Just moving the ball a little quicker opened up spaces for players to get down the line and send crosses.”
During FC Tucson’s Thursday night training, the team spent the entire evening working on possession drills, first in a tight space and then progressively larger until the end of the training session, when FC Tucson was just walking through their game plan on the main field.
Montes said the possession drills helped him and his teammates find the right spaces to exploit opposing defenses. Even when FC Tucson wasn’t scoring, they racked up a lot of scoring opportunities throughout the first half. FC Tucson outshot BYU 14-5 in the first half.
“It’s such a relief just scoring one goal,” Montes said. “So to score two, it felt great. Just to take some pressure off my teammates and help us keep a good lead, I mean, it feels great to do that.”
Now FC Tucson needs to earn just four points in its final three matches to clinch a playoff spot. FC Tucson’s next home game will be Sunday, July 8 at 7 p.m. It’ll be FC Tucson final home game of the season and tickets can be bought online at www.fctucson.com, Facebook.com/FCTucson or at TicketForce.com. Fans can also buy their tickets at the gate prior to kick off.
Goals:
’35: FC Tucson-James Cohn (Carlos Montes)
’46: FC Tucson-Carlos Montes (Donny Toia)
’49: FC Tucson-Carlos Montes (Ricardo Velasco)
Cards:
‘8: FC Tucson-Reid Schmitt (Yellow)
’37: FC Tucson-Conor Spence (Yellow)
’40: FC Tucson-Ricardo Velasco (Yellow)
’44: FC Tucson-James Cohn (Yellow)
’49: BYU-Jon Junca
’53: BYU-Colby Bauer
Starters
FC Tucson
GK Michael D’Arrigo
D Reid Schmitt
D Conor Spence
M Reid Hukari
M Carlos Montes
M Ricardo Valesco
M Max Alvarez
F Dom Papa
D Kareem Smith
M James Cohn
D Matt Linenburger
BYU
GK Brian Hale
D Will Burton
D Stering Hancock
D Jon Junca
D Doug Clark
M Colby Bauer
M Dallin Cutler
M Jace Green
M Garrett Losee
F David Gates
F Toni Nicolle
