Sweet Home’s girls soccer players opened up their season with a 2-1 win at home over Cascade.
“The girls were excited to play and come back and have a season,” said Head Coach Ramiro Santana.
“When we first started, we didn’t have a whole lot of control of the ball. As the game progressed, we started getting more touches on the ball and had more time dribbling and passing the ball amongst ourselves. Then we were able to control the ball more,” Santana said.
“You’re going to create more and get the other team more tired by passing the ball that much,” he said.
Maddie Harris scored a goal late in the first half to give Sweet Home a 1-0 lead.
Cascade was awarded a penalty kick later in the half after a collision between one of their forwards and Huskies goalie Andra Gordon, which they capitalized on to tie the game at 1-1.
In the second half, Natalie Rodgers scored the deciding goal for the Huskies after the ball was played into the middle of the field from a corner kick. The Huskies’ defense was able to keep Cascade from scoring the entirety of the second half, securing the 2-1 victory.
Santana says he’s been emphasizing passing in practice, and that his team was able to move the ball “quite a bit” against Cascade.
“Everything comes with dribbling and passing,” said Santana. “That’s pretty much the thing that we work on every day, and everything else comes along with it.”
“We had control of the ball most of the game,” he said.
The girls were scheduled to host La Pine Tuesday, March 9, then take on Newport at home Thursday, March 11, at 5 p.m.