Froshbite girls soccer beat College Park on Saturday morning 1-0. The tightly matched game took place in the pouring rain, with backup goalie Sadie Hendrickson not letting any shots get past her. With only 10 minutes left in the game, a College Park defender made the mistake of blocking a shot on goal with her hands, giving Aliyah Vasquez-Fireman a penalty kick. Aliyah put a shot up high that hit the crossbar and bounced right into the goal, scoring the only goal of the game and securing the win for Acalanes.
Later that day, the Dons traveled to Orinda to face the Miramonte Madadors. The weather cleared up nicely for a great afternoon match. Our Dons must have been inspired by the World Cup because they came out with a lot of spirit while connecting passes all over the field.
The final result was a thrilling 3-1 comeback victory for the Dons. After a closely contested first half, the score was 0-0 with the Dons overwhelmingly leading in possession. Early in the second half, Miramonte managed a sudden counter attack and were able to score the first goal of the game by squeezing a shot just past the diving save attempt by Maya Shoenhair.
However, our Dons quickly tied the score with an amazing goal from Katherine Avnain, who was celebrating her birthday, on a nice pass from Nina Bundy. Just a few minutes later, Avnain moved in again and scored her second goal for the Dons to take the lead 2-1! What a way to celebrate your birthday!
The defensive group again was strong with Natalie Hamill and Cassidy Smith handling the middle on the back line with Lauren Anderson, Molly Aldrich, and Sara Tarnai anchoring the outside. Maya Shoenhair was in goal making several great saves while also aggressively moving forward to build up our momentum from the back deftly connecting passes to open space. Meanwhile our midfielders and forwards worked well together making the Matadors chase the ball all over the field. Stella Pacheco, Kate Uffelman, Sadie Hendrickson, Nina Bundy and Brooke Rardin worked with Maddie Bernstein, Julia Munter, and Julia Lyons to create a ton of opportunities with our forwards Aliyah Vazquez-Fireman and Charlotte Gellman.
Towards the end of the game, Kate Uffelman powered her way through several defenders and would not be denied and provided the final goal to give the Dons the final margin of victory 3-1. The Dons will face Miramonte again on the 17th for what should be a compelling rematch.
