Bruin girls soccer was home Thursday evening taking on a strong St. Mary’s who made the trip to the coast and brought their 7-0 league with them.
The Bruin girls matched well with the Lady Crusaders keeping the game between the penalty boxes and away from the front of their goal and forcing St. Mary’s to work their way into offensive opportunities.
It would take a mistake at midfield that would start a St. Mary’s fast break opportunity that would find the back of the net giving the Lady Crusaders a 0-1 lead almost halfway through the first half of play.
With a 0-1 lead, the Lady Crusaders were able to take defensive risks creating pressure on the Bruin girls ability to get into their offensive attack, disrupting passing lanes and challenging loose balls.
This would allow the Lady Crusaders to work their way deep into Bruin girls territory, forcing their way into another scoring opportunity in front of the Bruin girls goal and taking a 0-2 lead.
With a lot of time left in the first half, the Bruin girls would work the ball into the Lady Crusaders half of the field creating multiple scoring opportunities that would all be turned away.
But the Bruin girls were relentless at the end of first half, pushing runs down the wings and working the ball into the middle, finding success with less than a minute in the half, after freshman right winger Kaiya Evans, #23, beat her defender wide and crossed the ball into the middle of the box where sophomore offensive midfielder #11, Ellie Hanneman, buried the shot, making the score 1-2 at the half.
In the second half, the Bruins controlled much of the game, but just could not find the goal as they challenged St. Mary’s on every part of the field.
But as they stretched the field and pressed forward in efforts to score and tie the game, it exposed the defense wide down the left side where the Lady Crusaders would cross the ball into the middle for a shot that would make the score 1-3 late in the second half to take the win.
Talking with coach Carlson after the game, he said, “First, I want to thank everyone who came out to support the soccer teams today. I know that it helps to energize the Girls. I’m really proud of the way that we played today.” he continued, “We showed a lot of heart. St. Mary’s is a very good team, and we still have some big games left on the schedule, today’s game helps us to prepare for those.”
The Bruin girls will play their next game at home next Thursday against a powerful Sutherlin team, with kick-off set for 3:30pm.
