After a grueling game Saturday afternoon, the Bruin girls were back on the field at home again Monday, hosting the #6 OSAA ranked Sutherlin Lady Bulldogs coming into the game with an 11-1-1 record and coming off a 1-1 tie to the #5 ranked North Valley Lady Knights.
Though it wasn’t raining at game time, the field was sloppy from the previous 24 hour drenching with both teams walking onto the field knowing the importance of the game as the regular season comes to a close.
Both teams spent much of the first half finding their footing, carefully getting used to the field conditions to not risk a costly misjudgement or mistake that could give the other a game changing opportunity in the blink of an eye.
As both teams cautiously attacked the other defenses, being careful to not be caught out of position, ball control became key as the slick field conditions made every shot and pass a treacherous adventure. But after fending off a number of quality attacks in their own defensive backfield, the Bruin girls committed a foul in the penalty box, resulting in a penalty kick and 0-1 lead for the Lady Bulldogs 25:00 minutes into the first half.
The Bruin girls struggled to recover from the weak penalty shot call that gave an already confident Sutherlin team the break they needed to pressure the Bruin girls, and they turned up the pressure immediately, pressuring the Bruin girls off-side trap defense into one on one situations to create fast break opportunities, opening a shot opportunity from just outside the penalty box that got past the Bruin keeper giving the Lady Bulldogs a 0-2 lead at the half.
The Bruins offense created many opportunities through out the game including the second half, however, they just could not catch a break, even in the quagmire of mud and players the goal box turned into in front of the Lady Bulldogs goal. Sutherlin would later add an insurance goal midway through the second half and go on to take the 0-4 win.
“We have had a very good season, finishing 8-4-1 in this league is an accomplishment.” head coach Brian Carlson told the Compass after the game. “Today’s game was tough, Sutherlin is a hard match for most everyone in this league, they’re athletic and have a lot of speed. We finish up with a game at Cascade Christian on Wednesday and then we will start preparing for post season play. We still have a shot at hosting a playoff game but there is a lot of things that need to shake themselves out before we will know, so we will ask our girls to continue to go out and compete every game, exactly as they have all season, and today’s match-up with Sutherlin was certainly no exception.”
The Bruin girls will close out regular season play Wednesday on the road in Medford, taking on the Cascade Christian Lady Challengers with kick-off scheduled at 4:00pm.
