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Dos Pueblos got out to a strong start but San Marcos fought back late to secure a 1-1 draw in a girls soccer rivalry matchup on Thursday night at Warkentin Stadium.
With the draw, the Royals (5-3-2, 2-1-2 Channel League) and Chargers (5-2-4, 1-0-4 CL) remain in playoff positions in third and fourth place, respectively, in the Channel League standings.
“We knew coming into this it was going to be a battle,” San Marcos head coach Miguel Vences said. “It’s great to see some adversity and how the girls respond, that was our message to the girls: no matter what happens stay composed and play your game.
“Give Dos Pueblos credit, they’re a great team and fought well. You definitely saw that both teams wanted it.”
The Royals nearly started the game with a bang as Meleeya Alaniz found herself behind the defense with a 1-on-1 against Dos Pueblos goalkeeper Bridget Harris just two minutes in.
However, Harris came up with the clutch save to preserve the scoreless tie.
Three minutes later, the Chargers got the scoring started courtesy of Hazel Burgess. After the ball rattled around in the San Marcos penalty box for a few seconds on an attack, it found the feet of Burgess at the top of the box.
She then took one dribble forward and fired a ground shot into the bottom left corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.
“We had watched some film and we knew that we could get an early goal,” Dos Pueblos head coach Marco Medina said. “The last few games we’ve had multiple opportunities and we thought with pressure up front we could get an early one, and that’s what we planned and what happened.”
Now trailing, the Royals stayed aggressive for the rest of the first half and created plenty of opportunities around the Dos Pueblos penalty box.
However, the Charger backline stood strong and consistently turned away any San Marcos attacking effort to preserve the 1-0 lead into halftime.
“We acknowledge how hard our defensive game is,” Medina said. “Our back row was pretty solid, they were trying to slip the ball in between our defenders and we were able to stop that.”
The closest scoring opportunity came in the 38th minute when the Royals’ Kate Selby took control of a loose ball in the box and fired it towards the net. However, Harris was there to secure the stop and keep the lead.
“Bridget (Harris) stepped in as a goalkeeper last game and now she played full time, she’s doing a job that’s going to benefit the team and she’s done outstanding work,” Medina said.
Alaniz threatened once again early in the second half, firing a rocket of a shot from outside of the box in the 43rd minute. However, it clanked off the top crossbar and was cleared out by the Dos Pueblos defense to maintain the score.
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Both defenses continued to flex their muscles throughout the second half as the Chargers stayed strong and the Royals’ backline settled in after allowing the early score.
“There were probably some game nerves knowing that half the team over there is from their club team and have been teammates for a while. I think they were feeling the game out for the first 10 minutes,” Vences said of his defense’s performance.
“I think they recovered well and for the rest of the game they pretty much gave up no other chances, so I thought they responded well.”
In the 69th minute, San Marcos had the ball in the attacking third with a throw-in opportunity. Kenzie Hessell tossed the ball to the feet of Zeina Matni, who had been in the middle of the action all night for the Royals.
Matni took one dribble forward and from 15 yards outside of the penalty box, she fired a rocket of a shot over the Dos Pueblos backline and goalkeeper into the back of the net for the equalizer.
“Kenzie did a great job on that throw in getting it quickly to her feet and from that moment, Z is a special player,” Vences said. “She notices the spaces and when to attack them, and in that moment she took over that space and got a great goal for us.”
In the final 10 minutes, both sides had chances to push the ball forward for the go-ahead score. However, the backlines once again buckled down and held strong to maintain the 1-1 score until the final whistle.
Although Medina and the Chargers were disappointed they were unable to hold on for the win, he remained optimistic going forward.
“For away games the formula is to get a tie and hopefully sneak a win, but the silver lining is that we’re still undefeated and we’re still within reach of our goal, which is to win Channel League or get in the top two,” Medina said.
“Today the energy was great, it was fantastic so we want to keep that momentum going for sure.”
San Marcos will host Buena on Monday at 5 p.m. while Dos Pueblos will welcome Oxnard to Goleta on Monday at 5:15 p.m.
Noozhawk sports editor Diego Sandoval can be reached at dsandoval@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter and Instagram @NoozhawkSports
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