Gilroy opens league schedule with 3-1 win over Alvarez
Gilroy – Ariana Vera scored a second-half hat trick to give Gilroy a 3-1 victory Tuesday over Alvarez in the Tri-County League opener.
After being held scoreless in the first half, the Mustang offense erupted in the second.
“Part of it is still getting to know each other,” said GHS coach Jose Hernandez. “We were dealing with emotions and frustrations. We were able to work through those in the second. We were looking up instead of kicking the ball away. We had much better movement.”
Many of the chances were generated by midfielder Amanda Bruce, who controlled the tempo and was able to find teammates for passes and scoring chances. She had two assists.
“Whoever wins the midfield usually wins the game,” Bruce said. “We had great energy by our forwards, and that made it easy to create runs. We started playing smarter in the second half and had more energy.”
The Mustangs (3-2) scored the first goal four minutes into the second half. Nubia Diaz de Leon took a shot on the left of the goal that the defender saved along the baseline. Diaz de Leon, surprised that ball stayed in bounds, kicked it in front to Vera for the easy goal past the out-of-position goalie.
Vera’s second goal came 14 minutes into the second half from about 18 yards on a long cross in the center from Bruce.
The Mustangs scored their final goal 34 minutes into the second half. Vera again was in the right place at the right time. Bruce saved a ball along the baseline and kicked it in front of the net. The Alvarez goalie couldn’t stop it cleanly, and Vera touched it home.
“We were able to pick up the pace,” Vera said. “That gave us more opportunities as we had more runs.”
“She is so fast,” said Hernandez of Vera. “It was nice that we were able to finish. We had a number of solid shots.”
The Eagles only had a couple shots on goal during the second half. But they were all from outside and were easily gobbled up by goalie Bianca Catanzaro. Alvarez scored its only goal in the final minute of the game after a handball. The resulting direct kick went in untouched.
“We still need to work on our defense,” Hernandez said. “We are still not tackling like we could and don’t have the movement on defense.”
Gilroy will be at San Benito in another TCAL match Thursday.
