Lady kickers tie score in 2nd half but fall to Woodside
GILROY – Trailing by a goal early in the second half of Friday night’s non-league game against Woodside, the Lady Mustang soccer squad finally finished off a scoring opportunity to tie things up.
On a cross from Gilroy’s Jackie Iwanaga, teammate Jackie Arribierre touched home the ball just inside the near post. It was a whole new ball game for the Lady Mustangs.
“Great goal. Great position,” head coach Adam Gemar said. “The momentum was totally going our way.”
But the excitement was shortlived as Woodside came right back down the field and netted a pair of goals within two minutes of one another to hand Gilroy a 3-1 defeat inside Mustang Stadium.
“We played pretty well,” Gemar said. “We picked it up. We started slowing the ball down a little bit. We were playing a little Gilroy ball. We started to pass a lot better. The communication picked up and that resulted in our goal.”
The Lady Mustangs (0-2) kept at it – generating several second-half scoring chances. But they could not find the back of the net again. On Gilroy’s best opportunity, midfielder Cydney Fong beat her defender and put a sliding shot on goal – which bounced out to Arribierre. The one-time Gilroy netminder now a front-line player booted the ball – but it deflected off the crossbar.
“We still need a lot of work. We need to continue to work on the basics,” the first-year head coach said. “We’re moving people around. We’re not exactly sure on positions.”
One position that is solidified, however, is in net where goalkeeper Dallas Hernandez made save after save to keep her team in the game. Close-range blasts did not fluster Hernandez at all as she snagged several sure-goals for Woodside.
“She’s outstanding,” said Gemar of Hernandez.
Up next, the Lady Mustangs will play host Dec. 15 to Monterey inside Mustang Stadium at 5:30 p.m.
