Julio Moctezuma Diche kicks. Brian Wilhite photo.

 

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE —  Julio Moctezuma Diche, a defense-first midfielder on the soccer pitch for the Carson Cougars, is also the kicker for the football team.

He’s a critical piece of the puzzle for both squads.

The 5-foot-7 Moctezuma was practically born with a soccer ball attached to his foot, and the beautiful game has shaped who he is, but now he’s learning to embrace football as well.

“I started playing soccer when I was 4,” said Moctezuma, a first-generation American whose family immigrated from Mexico. “Kicking has always been a natural thing for me, and soccer is my sport, but some friends asked me to come out and kick for the football team last year. I thought they were joking, at first, but now football is very important to me.”

A fearless kicker with ice in his veins can make the difference in a lot of tight high school football games. No one knows that better than Carson head coach Jonathan Lowe, whose teams have a tendency to play nail-bitters.

No Carson lead is safe. On the other hand, no Carson deficit can’t be overcome.

More than any other individual, Moctezuma made the difference for the Cougars (2-1) in their recent 32-29 victory over Piedmont. Moctezuma was a hero, not once, but twice, in the final five seconds.

“We had a soccer player (Luis Avalos) kick for the varsity team last year,” Lowe explained. “Julio came out and kicked for the jayvees last year after we lost a game because we didn’t have a kicker. He did really well and then he worked with (Catawba kicker) Bryson Sims some in the offseason, learned some football kicking drills, and got even better. He’s becoming a real weapon for us.”

Moctezuma has learned the nuances of kicking footballs as opposed to soccer balls. He understands the differences in foot plant and foot position. He understands the physics of striking a moving soccer ball as opposed to kicking a football that is sitting still. He understands that an oblong football and a spherical soccer ball are affected quite differently by weather conditions, especially wind.

Moctezuma’s first athletic priority is still Carson coach Lauren West and his friends on the soccer team. Carson plays at least two soccer games per week and there also are soccer practices on days when there is no game.

So fitting in football practices takes some extra effort.

Carson struggled to cover Moctezuma’s kickoffs at Piedmont. Part of that is the Cougars don’t get a chance to do it often in practice. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to work on little things like squib kicks, sky kicks and onside kicks.

“Julio is in my weightlifting class, and we’ve got a great relationship,” Lowe said. “We talk. We find 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there when he can practice football. We’ll adjust the schedule so that he can be there.”

There was zero football practice for Moctezuma on Wednesday, as the Carson soccer team was headed to Huntersville to play Lake Norman Charter. Moctezuma scored his second goal of the season in a 3-2 South Piedmont Conference loss.

“I focus on defense, so I don’t get chances to score much, but if there’s an opportunity to get involved on offense, I’ll take it,” Moctezuma said.

The soccer Cougars haven’t won often, but they’re competitive. It’s not like they lose 9-0. There have been lots of tight matches in the South Piedmont Conference, where the Cabarrus schools are normally a bit ahead of the Rowan schools.

On the football field, Moctezuma had a quiet opening night, kicking two extra points against Mount Pleasant.

He was a larger factor in a win over West Stanly in Week 2, 5-for-5 on PATs, plus a field goal, to account for eight points.

Last week’s Piedmont game didn’t get off to an ideal start for him. Carson scored first, but didn’t execute on the PAT, where Moctezuma works as part of a three-man team with a snapper and holder. Then Piedmont’s Kenyon Flowers returned Moctezuma’s enusing kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown and a brief 7-6 Piedmont lead.

Carson recovered from that shock, righted the ship and took control of the game on both sides of the ball. Moctezuma contributed two PATs as the Cougars pushed ahead 29-7 by halftime.

Piedmont rallied in the second half, taking advantage of two Carson turnovers. Piedmont tied the game at 29-all midway with under six minutes left to play.

Carson answered with a poised, time-eating drive that carried inside the Piedmont 10. The Cougars couldn’t put it in the end zone, but they set up Moctezuma for a 25-yard field goal and a chance to win the game with 5 seconds left.

“It was a short kick, but from an angle, right hash,” Moctezuma said. “That’s a kick I should make, but the big difference in playing high school soccer and playing football is the pressure. High school soccer, there may be 30 fans in the crowd. But football is different. There’s a big crowd on Fridays. I could hear the Piedmont fans. They had a student section and they were screaming at me. I could hear them yelling clearly, ‘This guy can’t kick!'”

Moctezuma may have gotten nervous, but then he saw his mother in the bleachers. She’d made the trip to Monroe. The jitters faded, replaced by a steely resolve.

“My mom drove straight from work, came a long way to watch me play football,” Moctezuma said. “No way I was going to let her down. No way I was going to miss that kick.”

He made the field goal with five seconds left. Carson fans started celebrating. The elation was premature. The Cougars still had to kick off.

Piedmont nearly housed that kickoff after time expired, for what would’ve been one of the most painful defeats in Carson history.

“I kicked off and it looked like my teammates had the guy wrapped up, so I start jumping up and down, but then I saw he was still moving,” Monteczuma said.

Lowe also was watching intently and felt an emotional swing. His heart bounced into his throat as the Piedmont return man, who had appeared to be halted, broke into the clear, with nothing but daylight and green turf in front of him.

Well, green turf and Moctezuma, but it’s not like Moctezuma does any tackling in practice.

But Moctezuma is an athlete. A soccer midfielder runs non-stop for 40 minutes before and after his halftime break. He did what he had to do.

“Julio took a great angle, looked like a defensive back,” Lowe said. “He ran the fastest I’ve ever seen him run and he got there and was able to trip the return man up.”

Moctezuma admits it wasn’t a form tackle. It was more of a shove, but he got the job done, made the man stumble, slowed him down. Then help arrived in the form of Carson DB Cruise Monteith. That last stop was made at the Carson 20, and the game was over.

Now the Cougars could celebrate.

Former Carson head coach Joe Pinyan made the pregame speech to the Cougars before they took on Piedmont. He reminded them the average football game comes down to just five plays. It was up to them to make those plays.

“Julio made two of those five plays in the last five seconds,” Lowe said. “He won the game for us. And then he saved it.”