The Lady Bruin varsity girls soccer team played their first game of the post season Tuesday afternoon against the #10 ranked Blanchet Catholic girls soccer team from Salem.
The contest was all it was billed to be, a battle for control of the midfield that resulted in close action and taking advantage of ball handling mistakes. Both teams matched up well with each other both individually and as teams.
The Lady Bruins came into the game hampered by injury and academic requirements as middle defender Lexi Schofield suffered a concussion and was unavailable due to concussion protocol while senior striker and team leading scorer Avana Pettus was unavailable due to academic requirements.
Both teams spent the majority of the first half battling in close quarters in the midfield portion of the field between penalty boxes. In the first half the Lady Bruins created more scoring opportunities in the Lady Cavalier half of the field as the Lady Cavaliers struggled to keep the Lady Bruins from offensive breakaways.
The Lady Cavaliers did their homework and were clearly concerned about controlling the Lady Bruin speed up front, and the Lady Bruins failed to recognize the false offside trap that allowed a ‘sweeper’ to lay off of the Lady Cavaliers by up to 10 yards which negated Lady Bruin fast break attempts by easily clearing the breakaway upfield or out of bounds.
After playing to a 0-0 tie at the halftime break, the early second half play was much like the first half, ball control in the middle of the field. But, as is usual in games like this, one mistake could be the game, and a foul at the top of the Bruin penalty box proved to be just that.
22:00 minutes into the second half a Bruin foul at the right hand side of the penalty box produced a direct free kick for the Lady Cavaliers. Lady Cavalier senior captain Mariella Saldana #10 and stepped into a hard high shot that found the upper left part of the Lady Bruin goal, giving the Lady Cavaliers the 0-1 lead with 18:00 minutes left to play.
In an evenly matched contest like this, that goal forced the Lady Bruins to stretch their field and push to score which involves taking risks. The Lady Bruins attack pushed the ball deep into the Lady Cavalier defensive end, creating scoring opportunities in front of the Lady Cavalier goal that the Lady Bruins just could not capitalize on.
The stretched field and also fatigued both teams with just minutes in the game, and the defensive risks taken by the Lady Bruins in an effort to tie the game and force overtime cost them late. The Lady Cavaliers pushed the fast break and a loose ball rebound was collected by the Lady Cavaliers senior captain Mariella Saldana #10 and ripped into the net all but sealing a Lady Cavalier 0-2 win with just 10:00 minutes to play.
Talking with Lady Bruin head coach Kyla Siri after the game she said “I’m proud of the girls for the work they’ve done to get here. They showed up ready to compete today and they did. We didn’t finish a couple opportunities, but this team is young and this was valuable for us moving into next year.”
Congratulations to a Lady Bruin team that finished as the 3A/2A/1A-SD4 Special District 4 repeat Champions with a final 2019 season record of 12-1-2.
