MONTAGUE — Shelby got a look at Montague one week prior to Thursday's district first-round game and felt like it had a good handle on the Wildcats after getting the win. But Thursday, Montague came out with a different defensive look, and a lot faster pace. That threw off the Tigers, and it led to a season-ending 3-2 defeat.
"What caught us off guard was them playing five in the back," Shelby coach Cristian Arellano said. "We did not expect that. Other than that, I think the pressure they had this game compared to the last game was very different, more intense. We weren't ready for that."
The game did take place on a much different field than the previous matchup between the teams thanks to constant rain, though Arellano said he didn't feel the weather hurt the Tigers.
Montague took advantage of the momentary advantage it gained with the change, scoring a goal just over three minutes into the game. It didn't take long for the Tigers to answer, as Christian Llanas fired a 25-yard shot perfectly to the corner to tie things up, but the early push set the tone that this game wouldn't look like Shelby's 2-0 win a week before.
The Tigers (9-10-1), to their credit, responded to the early salvo and kept the game tied for nearly 20 minutes following Llanas' goal, but the Wildcats' Zach Taylor launched a long shot that clipped the bottom of the crossbar and went in with 13:24 to go in the first half. Montague coach Brandon Mahoney said he gathered from the first game that Tigers' keeper Oliver Gorton excelled at saving high shots and that he focused the 'Cats on shooting low, but ironically, both their first-half goals came on high shots.
The Tigers made a halftime adjustment to counter the five-defender formation, and it paid off almost instantly as Cesar Cadena rifled through the Montague defense and tied the game up again just 25 seconds after the second-half kickoff.
Shelby's Brandon Rojas tries to knock the ball loose from Montague's Isaiah King during Thursday's district opener at Montague.
"With them having the five defenders, they kept leaving a gap in the middle, so that's what we tried to do, was pass (quickly) to the outside, and it worked," Arellano said.
From there, though, Montague unleashed a sustained push in the Shelby end, putting major stress on Gorton and the Tiger defense. Shelby managed to head off the Montague attack for over 30 minutes of game time - the 'Cats narrowly missed goals a couple of times in that span - but it felt inevitable a goal was coming unless Shelby could counter.
That counter didn't come, however, and Montague did indeed score the game-winner, on a perfectly placed shot to the corner by the Wildcats' Austin White with 7:33 to play. Shelby tried its best to push for an equalizer in the final minutes but could not get one.
The defeat ended a Shelby season that saw the Tigers win three more games than the year before despite a new coach and a very young roster. Arellano said he was impressed with his team's growth in the mental side of the game over the course of the season as much as anything they did with their feet.
"I think it was how they transitioned from, at the beginning, the mentality was (if) we're one goal down, we're done," Gorton said. "Today, I think they they fought really hard to the end. I think their mentality, getting over that hurdle, I liked that."
Llanas is only a sophomore and was the team's leading scorer, and Gorton, also a sophomore, has established himself as one of the area's top keepers, so Shelby has much to look forward to in the future.
Arellano knows it, which is why he wasted no time telling his team postgame that he expected an even better 2027 season next fall.
"We're going to keep working. We're going to keep getting ready for next season," Arellano said. "Next year, I told them, we have to win more games. We should expect to beat everybody."
