Hat trick leads Stallions to victory
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera South’s Aliah Avila (4) and Liberty’s Sara Garibay (9) battle for possession during Friday’s match.
Madera South girls soccer freshman Aliah Avila recorded her first three-goal game of her young high school career and the Stallions scored all four of its goals in the second half for a 4-0 victory over the Liberty Hawks.
Both teams entered the half scoreless, but the Stallions made the right adjustment that had the Hawks playing on their heels the rest of Friday’s match.
“We had to adjust to the way they were playing,” Madera South head coach Ramon Delgadillo said. “We started getting the ball to the outside. We are going to penetrate a lot faster because we have speed on the outside. We started adjusting with our midfielders to find the outside. Then, we can bring it inside.”
Two of the Stallions’ four goals were scored from moving the ball from the outside to the middle.
“We kind of got caught looking at a few things. We have to clean it up,” Liberty head coach Erick Walker said.
By being able to work the outside, the Stallions also helped help the defense and prevented solid scoring chances by the Hawks. Meanwhile, Walker was forced to move some of his players up front to the outside to defend against the Stallions’ offense, thus hurting his own offense.
“We’re struggling right now,” Walker said. “Our defense usually does pretty well. We’re getting banged up. We have had so many games in December that it’s ridiculous. It’s just the way how CIF decided to schedule our season this year. We’re trying to do our best and it’s starting to catch up to us.”
“We started protecting the back,” Delgadillo said. “We fixed the midfield so we could start getting the ball to the outside.”
In the second minute of the match, the Hawks attacked with Sevin Moreno on the right. She sent a ball to the middle for Sara Garibay, whose shot was blocked by Stallions’ goalkeeper Melani Rinder.
In the 16th minute, Liberty had a free kick from 25 yards out on the right, but Angelica Ponce’s free kick went wide right.
In the 21st minute, Liberty had a prime opportunity to get on the scoreboard. Moreno got the ball on the right and sent it to Sofia Garibay up front, but she was fouled.
On the ensuing free kick on the left, Moreno’s shot for the near corner post was blocked by a diving Rinder. On the ensuing corner, Moreno just missed a header and the ball went out of bounds.
Madera South had a counter in the 24th minute. Kayla Gutierrez got the ball in front, controlled it, but shot wide right.
On a Madera South corner, Anahi Casillas sent the ball across and the Stallions put a shot on goal, but Liberty goalkeeper Carly Tynan hit the ball over the crossbar. On the ensuing corner kick, Avila’s touch shot went over the crossbar.
In the 35th minute, Avila touched a ball to Brianna Maciel in the middle. Her touch shot was stopped by Tynan.
Three minutes later, Liberty’s Sara Garibay controlled the ball in front and shot just wide of the goal to send both teams into the half scoreless.
Just four minutes into the second half, the Stallions broke the scoreless tie. Brianna Velasco got the ball on the right and popped a ball up to the front of the goal. Maciel was on the opposite side and touched the ball into the near corner for the first goal of the match.
Madera South kept the pressure up when Velasco sent the ball to Andrea Vasquez in the middle a minute later, but Tynan came out for the save.
After a Liberty free kick and corner kick didn’t result in a solid chance, the Stallions pressured the Liberty defense.
Tynan had to come out of a game because of a possible concussion and Sarah Shevenell came in goal for the Hawks.
Madera South pressured Shevenell right away. The Stallions sent a ball across to the right and Maciel sent a shot to the far post, but Shevenell was there for the save.
However, the Stallions added to their lead midway through the second half. Jameela Sanchez got the ball on the right and sent it across. Avila was sitting behind Shevenell on the left side of the net and knocked the ball inside the near post for a 2-0 lead.
Madera South had three more chances on goal in the next 10 minutes, but the Hawks cleared the ball away.
In the 29th minute, from about 25 yards away, Avila got some open space and fired a line drive shot into the right corner of the goal for a 3-0 lead.
Late in the match, Liberty tried to clear the ball out, but Avila came in and popped the ball high and it went over an oncoming Shevenell into the back of the net.
