By LOU MARTIN
The Progress
Who says soccer is boring and has no action? Well, they should have attended the soccer match between Virgin Valley High School and SLAM Academy on Thursday, Sept. 15. The game was neck and neck down to the wire when the Bulldogs pulled ahead in the last minutes of the match, 6-5.
The matchup between the undefeated Bulls and the hometown Dawgs was an offensive display from start to finish. An evening of hard nose offensive and defensive play by each squad was finally decided by a free ball kick for goal in the box by VVHS junior Alexia De Santiago with less than two minutes remaining in the match.
The Bulldogs wasted little time getting on the board in the first period as striker Katrina Beltran scored a goal two minutes into the match.
The Bulls countered with striker Magaly Lopez scoring twice at the 7 and 8 minute mark of the match giving the Bulls a short-lived lead of 2-1.
Beltran tied the match 2-2 at the 18 minute mark with her second goal of the evening. Then it took the Bulldogs all of one minute to take the lead 3-2 on a breakaway shot from Natalie Isidro. Mersadee Corley had the assist for the Dawgs on a well- placed pass.
The team’s aggressiveness increased as the match went on. Then a mistake by the Dawgs gave the Bulls a penalty kick in the box. Erika Morales’ goal kick was good tying the match again at the 25 minute mark.
The Bulldogs took advantage of an overaggressive play in the box setting up a Bulldog penalty kick by De Santiago which gave the Dawgs a 4-3 advantage at the end of the first period.
The second period found the intensity increase as the defenses stiffened. Eventually Bulldog Tiana Tafili broke free and went one on one with the Bulls keeper slipping a shot by for a 5-3 lead.
The Bulls countered with a sweet pass from the left Bulldog side which Nicole Vargas headed into goal, cutting the Dawgs lead to 5-4 at the 56 minute mark of the match.
The teams then missed various opportunities to strike goal before Lopez struck her fourth goal of the game to tie the match again at 5-5.
The next 20 minutes was a battle of defenses as neither team could take advantage of scoring opportunities until De Santiago found goal late for the win.
Earlier in the week, the Bulldogs suffered a 3-1 loss at Equipo Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
The Dawgs played a big game against archrival Moapa Valley on Monday Sept 19 (see next week’s edition for details). That will be their only game of the week.
