Posted on 14 January 2014 by La Habra Journal
Ashley Bordy, shown against Ayala, had a tough job in defending one of Troy’s better offensive players in a 1-0 overtime loss at Troy, Tuesday afternoon.
by Jeremiah Girard
La Habra Journal
The Sonora Lady Raiders’ soccer team dropped their league opener with a heart-breaking 1-0 loss to Troy in overtime, Tuesday afternoon, at Troy High.
In the final seconds of the second overtime period, the Lady Warriors pressured in front of the net and put in a goal off of a rebound, which broke a scoreless tie. The goal came in the final minute of a 10-minute period.
The goal was credited to senior Kaycee Hoover.
“This was a real tough loss,” said Sonora head coach, Alex Bengard. “We came in with a game plan and executed it nearly perfectly for all but a few seconds and because of it, we leave with a loss to start the Freeway League season.”
From the beginning, it was clear that Sonora was playing not to lose. The Lady Raiders drew up a game plan to try to keep Troy from scoring, and executed it well for the whole game.
Troy (8-3-3, 1-0-0) controlled the ball for nearly the entire game and almost every time Sonora touched the ball they just dumped it back to Troy and made them start their attack over.
Goaltender Han Nguyen controlled Troy’s shots throughout. She had seven saves in the game.
The Raiders (4-7-4, 0-1-0) were led by a stellar defensive performance from top to bottom. Ashley Bordy was given the tough task of guarding Troy junior Lauren Woodyard for the majority of the game. Woodyard appeared to be stronger and faster than Bordy, but Bordy held her own in a gritty matchup and shut down one of Troy’s first options.
Despite the loss to start the year, the Lady Raiders are looking at the game as a positive going forward.
“The girls played great today,” Bengard said. “We proved that if we execute the way we are supposed to that we will be able to hang with just about anybody.”
Even though they did not get the win, the game definitely shows that the Lady Raiders may factor into the playoff race in the Freeway League.
“We will have a lot of confidence going forward,” Bengard said. “If the girls can play like they did today, we will definitely start to see some wins coming in.