Another match, another 2-2 tie for ‘Stangs, Acorns
Maybe these two are just fit to be tied.
In a battle of TCAL’s best Friday night at Mustang Stadium, the girls’ soccer teams at Gilroy and Live Oak battled to a 2-2 draw – the same score by which the Jan. 19 meeting was decided.
The game netted the same reaction from each side, too.
The underdog, comeback kids from Gilroy – which rallied in the 72nd minute in the first game – were ecstatic after rallying from 2-0 down in this one. The Mustang camp talked as if this was a victory.
“I knew we could beat them,” said a beaming Joann Olivo-Pedroza, who scored the game-tying goal early in the second half. “I think we can take this thing all the way.”
The Live Oak side, meanwhile, looked as sullen as could be afterward. Much like he did after the first match, Acorns’ head coach Tony Vasquez singled out officiating as the reason for the tie.
“We definitely let the refs get in our head,” said Vasquez, quickly noting it was the same crew as in the last GHS-LO meeting. “We lost focus – starting with me. But there’s only so much I can take.
“Bottom line is we just lost our composure and it cost us.”
It all started out so well for the Acorns (6-0-2 TCAL). In just the second minute, Lena Marsh lofted a shot over GHS goalie Sarah Hugo’s head after an assist from Michelle McDonald.
Eighteen minutes later, McDonald got one of her own when she simply streaked past a pair of Mustang defenders, took the ball a third of the way down the field and knocked one in for the defending CCS DI co-champs.
Gilroy, however, carried momentum into halftime after Brittany Barnes got the ‘Stangs on the board in the final minute of the half. The ball slipped under the diving keeper’s hands and Barnes poked it in with an assist from Amanda Bruce.
“That was huge,” GHS head coach Jose Hernandez said. “It got us back in the game and I think put a lot of pressure on them.
“After that, we came out with intensity and fire in the second.”
Did they ever.
To put it simply, the Mustangs dominated the final 40 minutes – both in terms of ball possession and composure. While the Acorns griped at a host of out-of-bounds calls and foul calls – netting two yellow cards along the way – Gilroy simply went about its business.
“We made adjustments at the half,” said Hernandez, noting the way his defense closed in during the second and didn’t allow much space to pass. “And they seemed to work out for us.”
Less than seven minutes after the break, Olivo-Pedroza freed the ball up from a crowd of players in front of the goal and fired a shot that tied the game up.
“We’ve read in the paper about how they said it was like our CCS every time we played them,” Olivo-Pedroza said. “Um sorry, but that’s not true.”
In fact, with the tie, the Mustangs (14-4-3/5-1-3) moved ever closer to clinching an automatic CCS berth, which goes to the top two teams in league play. Gilroy simply needs to beat or tie Salinas in the finale Wednesday or have Hollister lose or tie one of its last two games.
As for the Acorns – even though they are just one win away from clinching yet another TCAL title – all Vasquez seemed focused on after the game was the officiating.
“Every time we play these referees are here,” he said while shaking his head. “They love it, too. They smile and laugh it up.
“I’m not sure what I did to them, but they shouldn’t take it out on these girls.”
According to Barnes, though, it wasn’t officiating that led to Gilroy’s come-from-behind tie.
“We wanted it more. We wanted it bad,” she said. “At halftime, we were like ‘let’s just go push it all we can and use our hearts.’
“And that’s what we did.”
