SPHS Girls Soccer defeats Temple City in a tight match

The Tigers came back reenergized after halftime, and intercepted the ball seconds after the Rams took the kickoff. Reasserting their position, the Tigers took over the offensive field once again. Kowal and Pollard partnered to open opportunities to score, but while the Tigers were unceasingly attacking the goal, the Rams’ goalkeeper managed to block multiple shots, keeping them at bay.

With that, the Tigers got the ball back into their possession and ran towards the opposite goal. The Tigers brought their all as Pollard, with an assist from junior Kaoruko Endo, took a shot at the goal and the ball brushed past the goalie’s fingers to hit the net, scoring the very first goal of the game and giving South Pas a 1-0 lead.

Story Linda Yun Illustration Samantha Shiroishi

The girls soccer team narrowly won against the Temple City Rams in an away game on Friday, Jan. 27, triumphant by a score of 1-0. The Tigers managed to scrape by the Rams and improve their record to 11-2-1 overall and 6-2 in the Rio Hondo League.

The Tigers controlled the ball from the kickoff with junior Iris Pollard kicking it back to senior Sabrina Bluml until the Tigers lost the ball quickly to the opposing side. The two teams began a back-and-forth with each side gaining control of the ball for a short stint before the other team took control and ran the play back to the opposition.

The play seemed to center around the midline during the first half of the game, until freshman Anna Kowal intercepted the ball and passed to Pollard. Pollard took a shot at the goal and missed, but the play had moved towards the offensive goal box. From then on, the Tigers’ increased aggression kept the Rams on their toes with driving pushes towards the goal.

The Rams were breaking through the Tigers’ defense to try and get an offensive push, but senior Ava Fineza was quick to herd the Rams back towards their goal box as she protected the back lines. However, even with the Tigers pushing towards the goal more fervently than ever, the whistle rang out for halftime with zero goals in the game, the two teams at a standstill.

After a quick celebration, the Tigers focused on pressing towards the opposing goal once again. However, after freshman Rose Vandevelde and Pollard joined forces to attack the goal, the Rams gained possession and began traveling back towards the defending field. The opposing team attempted to shoot, but sophomore goalkeeper Ava Hartstein dove for the ball, successfully deflecting the shot. Once again, Harstein securely snatched the ball out of the air on the Rams’ second attack.

A couple minutes sped by with the teams fighting for power over the ball, and sophomore Saidbh Byrne, Vandevelde, and Bluml did well to keep the ball out of the Rams’ hands. With only a few minutes left in the game, the Tigers were stalling for time by keeping the ball along the edge and continuously going out-ofbounds. The match ended with a 1-0 win for the Tigers after a hard-fought game.