Oops. Davis can’t get offense untracked in 1-1 soccer tie

This one didn’t help things.

After playing one of its more dominating games of the season on Tuesday, Davis High’s boys soccer team spit the bit on Thursday, allowing Franklin to carve out a 1-1 tie on a blustery afternoon at Yudin Field.

The problem? Those rascally soccer gods were at it again …

Despite getting plenty of shots again (more than 50 in the last two outings), the darn ball just isn’t going in. In beating Elk Grove, 6-0, three days ago, the Blue Devils hit 6-of-43 attempts.

Combine the tie with front-running Grant’s easy win over the Thundering Herd (also on Thursday), and DHS (9-4-4, 4-0-2) finds itself a half-game behind the Pacers.

That’s the bad news.

The good news?

The Devils have a chance to reclaim the top spot when they travel to Grant for a Tuesday 7 p.m. game with the Pacers (13-2-1, 5-0-1).

On Thursday, DHS interim coach Alex Park felt his guys were off their games in the first half.

“We didn’t play very well until late,” Park explained. “In the second half, I thought we did a pretty good job on the attack again. But we struggled to get the ball in the net.”

The locals trailed 1-0 after Franklin hit a long floating goal that Park called a “great, one-in-a-million” shot.

Using its new 4-3-3 alignment, the Blue Devils — working into a second-half wind — caught a break when Alex McIntyre was tackled in the box, resulting in a penalty kick with about five minutes left.

For the second straight game, sophomore D.J. Villegas would convert the free kick, but DHS could do no more before the final-whistle blew.

Park praised the play of attackers Ian Soffos, Alex Herman, Collin Holtz, Paul Hinton, Brian Brit, Villegas and McIntyre.

Villegas was shaken up late, but there’s no report on the extent of his injury.

The Pacers and the defending section champion Devils tied 0-0 at DHS on Sept. 27.

“We’ve got four more games,” Park said. “We’ll take the weekend off, hope we get healthy … we hope we can peak before playoffs.”

It’s expected the DVC again will earn three section berths.

Davis played its second straight game without defender Lee LeVerrier (back, eye infection).