The Dons were back to their winning ways on Tuesday night against the visiting Petaluma Trojans in the first round of the NCS playoffs. But, of course, the Dons needed some time at the beginning of the first quarter to get the jitters out and settle in. Piedmont got on the board first, but the Dons responded when Grace Imrie scored off of a feed from Ella Thomason. The Trojans scored their second and last for a while a couple minutes later. The Dons responded again, this time when Tea Smith scored off of a pass from Campbell Evans. From that point on, the Dons took control and never looked back. Emily Roberts scored two goals in the first quarter, one assisted by Grace Colaco and the other by Thomason. Then Thomason scored two of her own in the last 20 seconds of the half; Evans found Thomason on one and Colaco got her second assist of the game on the other. The first quarter ended with Acalanes leading Petaluma 6-2.
Thomason started the second quarter right where she left off, scoring her third off of a nice pass by Roberts. The Trojans got one in, but Thomason answered with her fourth and final goal of the game, this time assisted by G. Imrie. Later in the second, G. Imrie scored the most technically impressive goal of the game, when her “twizzler” ball snuck right past the Trojan’s goalie. Charlotte Gellman found the back of the net off of a pass by Thomason. G. Imrie scored one more, her “hat trick” goal, with just 5 seconds left in the half to end the half 11-3.
With such a healthy lead going into the second half, the Dons were able to play the entire bench, including the Junior Varsity players who were called up for the postseason. The Dons kept their foot on the gas with Roberts scoring two more to make an even four goals for the game; her third goal was assisted by Reese Imrie and her fourth by Colaco (her third assist of the night). The scoring continued with Stella Hamilton finding the back of the net on an 8m and Maya Stafford scoring two, one assisted by Cat Liu. The score after the third was 16-4 in favor of the Dons.
The final quarter featured even more scoring by the Dons. Grace Eppinger joined in the fun with two, one assisted by Liu. Hamilton tallied two more, yet another assisted by Liu and the other was from Eppinger. The Dons’ defense, played by Avery Ives, Kelly Todhunter, Reese Tierney, Claire Zimmerman, Jasmine Frost and Jacqueline Kuhner, was strong all game long. Ives and Tierney had some notably strong defensive plays throughout the game. And, of course, goalie Addie Martin made spectacular and timely saves during the game as well. Overall it was a teamwide effort with 8 Dons scoring our 20 goals and 8 Dons recording a whopping 16 assists. The Dons were also strong on the draw with G. Imrie, R. Imrie and Colaco controlling a combined 13. The Dons took the win with a score of 20-5.
With the big win, the Dons advance to the NCS quarterfinals on Thursday at 7pm, hosting Piedmont. Let’s pack the stands and support our Dons! Tickets will be available for purchase on GoFan (gofan.co).
