The Coronado Islander girls varsity soccer team took on the Granite Hills Eagles in their first game of a three day tournament. Due to the game being part of a tournament, the halves were only 35 minutes, unlike the usual 40 minutes.
There was great competition and both sides were aggressive throughout the game. There was a lot of grabbing of jerseys and shoving, but nothing either side couldn’t handle. There was one yellow card given out to a Granite Hills player.
To add onto that, with how much back and forth there was it was hard for either team to get much space to shoot. Nonetheless, with 18 minutes left in the first half Maren Hawley put the Islanders on the board first with a powerful shot past the goalie and into the net allowing the Islanders to celebrate for a moment, then get back on track.
As the Islanders kept pressure upfront offensively, the defense was working hard. They allowed opportunities to rise for the Islanders to get the offensive pushes by clearing the ball well and causing turnovers.
Lindsey Balsley did a great job clearing the ball whenever it got close to the box. She was able to get in the way and defend well before Granite Hills could line up a shot.
Additionally, Giana Quijano was doing a phenomenal job at stealing the ball and keeping control. Once she had control, she was able to dish the ball off to her teammate and allow them to get a chance at a fast break to the sideline. That tradeoff usually pushed Granite Hills back, forcing them to reset.
The Islanders were up 1-0 when tragedy struck for Granite Hills – they scored an own goal. With a mistake from the goalie, not being able to control a pass back, the ball went under her foot and into the back of the net giving the Islanders a 2-0 lead.
As the end of the game was nearing, Granite Hills took their chance from a free kick, and from about 35 yards out they were able to sneak one by the Islanders’ goalie.
With only about 4 minutes left in the game, the Eagles were not able to score again.
The scoreboard glowed with the final score of 2-1, leaving the Islanders victorious.
