West Aurora’s Carlos Gracia Sheets enjoys studying the structure and shapes of objects.
The junior midfielder also enjoys examining how the parts connect and work together.
”I love engineering,” he said. “I am part of a club at school, and there was a regional competition to build a house. We ended up coming in second place. My intelligence whenever I am playing soccer is the same way.
“I just know what to do and when to do it.”
Gracia Sheets got down to business Tuesday night, scoring his third goal of the season in the 18th minute for the Blackhawks in a 3-0 Upstate Eight West victory at East Aurora.
Senior forward Power Selemani scored just 22 seconds into the game for West Aurora (9-2, 1-0). Senior forward Pedro Delgado closed out the scoring for the Blackhawks in the 71st minute.
Sophomore goalkeeper Carlos Fabela came off the bench after senior starter Orlando Vazquez was shaken up and posted five saves in defeat for the Tomcats (6-5-1, 1-1-1).
Gracia Sheets’ feel for space and form paid off when he drove through a wave of East Aurora players for his goal.
“Before I got the ball, I checked my shoulder and I saw the space,” he said. “I opened up with my right foot, did a fake shot, beat the first guy and then I cut left and beat the second guy.
“It deflected off a third guy, and I passed the fourth guy and beat the goalkeeper to score.”
In his second year on the varsity, Gracia Sheets has flourished in an expanded offensive role that takes advantage of his excellent playmaking and ball-handling ability.
With his newfound freedom, he binds the intellectual and the scientific. And senior midfielder Pacifique Ndayishimiye has been impressed.
”I feel like he’s gotten a lot more technical as he’s gotten older and more comfortable in the program,” Ndayishimiye said. “He’s become much more confident on the ball.
“When he dribbles, you just know that he is going to go through another player.”
As a sophomore last year, Gracia Sheets played more of a defensive-oriented outside position. Now, he’s in the middle and far more involved in the flow and rhythm of the offensive attack.
”With some injuries, the loss of a player and players who graduated, we put a lot of people in that central midfielder spot and we saw that he has the ability,” West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic said. “He’s a very talented offensive player who reads the game well.
“He knows how to slow the game down when it needs that or how to increase the tempo.
The nature of the game allows Gracia Sheets to create his own imprint. Form and function naturally jam together.
”I love dribbling,” he said. “When I’m in a zone, I feel like I can take anybody on. In this role now, whenever I’m giving the ball, I have the freedom and creativity to attack in the final third.”
His parents put him in local youth soccer when he was just 3 years old.
“I just remember right away falling in love with the sport,” he said. “I loved the ability to dribble past people and connect my passes. I always loved the feeling of scoring. I just wanted to keep going.”
Playing on a talented team, Gracia Sheets has become the emotional temperament for West Aurora, fusing all the parts into a cohesive hole.
“He’s a very soothing element to our team,” Sustersic said. “There are times when we’re frantic. He knows how to bring that down, allow us to recover and put the game in the right possession.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
