travisdevlin@athensnews-courier.com

The Tanner Rattlers soccer team has been impressive so far this year. They opened the season back in February with a loss to the Sparkman Senators by a final score of 7-2. Since that game, the Rattlers have won five straight, including Saturday’s matchup against the Athens Bible Trojans, outscoring their opponents 50-2 in those five games. That win streak and large goal differential continued against the Trojans, winning by a final score of 10-0.

Within two minutes into match, Tanner’s Randy Cortez scored his first goal. That was followed by a goal in the in the 37th minute by Manuel Felipe giving the Rattlers a quick 2-0 advantage.

Tanner’s Oliver Gonzalez scored his first goal of the match with 36:21 left in the first half. Cortez added his second goal just over one minute later making it 4-0.

Tanner didn’t add to their total for over 11 minutes until Rodrigo Lagunas tacked on another one for the Rattlers with 24.00 minutes remaining.

Exactly two minutes later in the 22nd minute, Gonzalez added to his goal total for his second of the game.

A little over nine minutes went by with no goals scored until Felipe found the net for the second time in the match. Tanner’s Dylan East, who came off the bench late in the first half joined in on the scoring fun making it 8-0 with 9:07 remaining in the first half.

The Rattlers were not done scoring, specifically Cortez and Felipe. Cortez notched his third goal of the game in the waning minutes of the first half, securing a hat trick, his fourth game in a row with three goals in a match.

“Randy Cortez only an eighth grader, so I’m grateful to have him here for a few more years,” Tanner head coach Matt Smith said.

Felipe got the final goal, his third of the game early in the second half, ending the game and securing the victory for the Rattlers.

“We possessed the ball really well, moved accordingly and thought our guys communicated really well and we got the win today,” Smith said.