Staff Report

WALNUT COVE — Surry Central’s Antonio Talavera put up a hat trick and the Golden Eagles rolled to an important conference win Monday, taking out South Stokes, 5-1.

With his left foot, Central’s Ed Lira started things off on the right foot for the Golden Eagles, putting in his team’s first goal within the first 10 seconds of play.

Talavera picked up his first goal of the night 12 minutes later on an assist from Edwin Alonso with Orlando Perez booting a Talavera pass into the back of the net just four minutes later to give Central a quick 3-0 lead.

Alonso got a goal of his own in the 24th minute off a pass from Joel Gonzalez to push Central into halftime leading 4-0.

Talavera scored his hat trick goal on what Surry Central assistant coach Matt Richardson called “the hardest shot I have ever seen in high school soccer,” slamming home a riccocheted shot off the goal post in the 74th minute to seal the game.

Central coach Blake Roth said he was very pleased with Talavera’s showing Monday.

“Last year he was our starting goal keeper and he is a great goalie but we are now able to utilize his skills in the midfield and lately he has been up at forward,” Roth said.

“Bernardo Leandro is out and we are trying to give him a break and he hopefully will be back for Bishop but Talavera came up huge for us tonight. That was definitely big because Bernardo can be a goal or assist a game and we do definitely realize he (Talavera) deserved those goals.”

With a huge matchup with Bishop looming today, Roth said he was happy his team stayed focused on the task at hand.

“I was proud of the boys,” he said. “They didn’t look past South Stokes, because they were definitely a test for us. I think it was a good confidence builder for everyone to play well tonight and be ready for Bishop. According to the players from South, it’s going to be a pretty even match.”