By Rebecca Do
The Barons girls’ varsity soccer team opened their game on the offensive against the Eleanor Roosevelt Mustangs on Tuesday at home, but the Mustangs fought back hard and eventually beat the Barons 2-1.
For the majority of the first quarter, the Barons attacked the Mustang’s goal several times, but never scored. As the quarter progressed, it became more of a back-and-forth between the two teams. However, at the end of the first quarter, the game was mainly defensive play for the Barons.
The Mustangs shot multiple times and got close to the Barons’ goal but ultimately fell short due to the Barons’ defensive play and goalkeepers.
During the end of the first half, it began to rain fairly hard, but the Barons persisted and held their ground with a strong defense. The first half ended 0-0.
“Because of the rainy weather, there’s a lot more complications with slippery balls and stuff like that. Overall the game was good, definitely not our best playing but we’ll get it next time,” junior keeper Nylah Mirshafiei said.
The second half opened with a new offensive play strategy from the Barons. The girls’ opted for a wider spread of players, improving their passing game.
“We saw that we could be playing with a lot more width based on the other team’s formation since they were playing really narrow and we really wanted to take advantage of the wide areas,” assistant coach Ryan Brown said.
The Mustangs scored the first goal of the game in the first couple minutes of the third quarter. They kept their lead throughout the third quarter and into the fourth quarter.
However, senior midfielder Samantha Armenta pulled through in the last couple minutes of the game, scoring a goal against the Mustangs. The Mustangs answered quickly with another goal to end the game with a final score of 1-2.
“I knew they had a strong defense and they did well, but we were able to get some space behind them. I’m proud of myself. I think I placed it well in the net. I hope we can score a couple more goals [in the next game] and I hope we can keep more control,” Armenta said.
With this loss, their record is now 5-4-2 and their next game will be a Sunset League match against Corona del Mar High School at home on Jan. 4 at 3 p.m.
