Tuesday January 14, the Acalanes Women’s Varsity welcomed the Benicia High Panthers to our home pitch for a chilly night of soccer. The Dons came out fighting, with defenders Tori Hiatt and Tatum Keely breaking up an early attack by Benicia. Soon after, Keely passed to Nicole Nguyen, who sent the ball to Lucca Debiasse, leading to a Dons’ corner – ultimately resulting in goal #1 by Alex Salazar, just under the 8 minute mark!
The Panthers responded with a shot on goal blocked by Keely, followed by a cross cleared by Hiatt, and another cross saved by keeper Melisa Adatepe. Pressure from the Panthers was countered by Cassidy Smith, followed by another close attempt on goal by Salazar. Benicia’s offense was further hindered by Edie Berzanksy just before Adatepe made a diving block of another shot on goal. The Dons’ offense responded with Dani Green and Lily Polkinhorn both taking shots but foiled by Panther defenders. Reese Tierney shot one high and on target, only to be deflected over the top by the Benicia goalie. More offensive attacks followed: Salazar’s corner kick and Stella Hamilton’s cross to Salazar were both stopped by the Panther keeper. Hamilton received a long goal kick and sent the ball downfield to Livi Foster for a shot, but again blocked by the Benicia goalie.
The Panthers’ next offensive attack was blocked by Keely and cleared by Sisi Houston. Action continued with more shots by Nguyen and Taylor Mikalis, more solid defense by Houston, and another save by Adatepe. Tierney then took the ball downfield with a pass to Nguyen to DeBiasse and back to Nguyen who sent the ball into the left front corner of the net, deflecting off the post and behind the keeper to score goal #2 for the Dons! Adatepe had another save off a free kick by Benicia. Hamilton ended the first half with a nice shot into the net, but sadly was called offsides.
DeBiasse started out the second half by sending a pass to Salazar for another goal attempt. The Dons quickly followed up with a pass from Keely to Salazar to Polkinhorn whose shot was just wide left of the net. Tierney wasted no time sending the ball back to Salazar who passed back to Mikalis who fired the ball decisively in the back of the net for Dons’ goal #3!
The Dons continued their shots on goal through Salazar and Foster, followed by a beautiful cross by Hiatt to Foster that was blocked by the Benicia defense. Benicia responded with an offensive run broken up by Berzansky and a cross saved by Adatepe. Foster battled to get the ball back for a pass to Salazar but was stopped by the Panthers. More offensive runs by Tierney passing to Nguyen then to Polkinhorn, by Hiatt’s goal attempt just wide of the post, by Nguyen with a shot over the crossbar, and then by Hamilton passing to Nguyen to Foster, who was cut off by the Benicia keeper. DeBiasse then passed to Nguyen, who sent a cross that was deflected by Foster into the net to score goal #4 for Acalanes!
The Donskept up the pressure, with Smith throwing in a trademark “cross” to Foster who passed to Hamilton for a shot just over the net. Benicia responded with a shot saved by Adatepe, followed by another close Benicia pass through towards the goal and stopped by an Adatepe dive. Green and Elodie Jensen worked the right line on offense. Polkinhorn passed to Green for a cross to Foster, but was saved by the Panthers’ keeper. Kate Uffelman joined the offensive effort with a nice pass to Green just out of her reach. Uffelman then followed this up by another pass to Jensen who took a shot just wide left of goal. Another Benicia run was disrupted by Houston before Smith sent the ball to Jensen for a final long shot on goal caught by the Benicia goalie.
Congrats to our Dons Women for their second league game victory! They’ll travel to Northgate this Friday night, January 17th, to face the Northgate Broncos!