Live Oak dropped its eighth league game of the season, Wednesday, but still had plenty to smile about.
After falling 3-0 to one of the BVAL’s perennial powers — St. Francis — coach Gina Sanders was proud of her team.
“They played a full 60-minute game. They never let up,” Sanders said. “They were cutting off passes. St. Francis really had to work hard for that win.”
The Acorns (1-8 in BVAL play) never got on their heels and pressed counter attacks for the entire game.
St. Francis capitalized early by utilizing back passing to spread out Live Oak’s defense, leading to a pair of goals within four minutes of each other.
“They weren’t very strong on their weak side, so we took advantage of that a lot (Wednesday),” said defender Emily Guthormsen.
Sanders added her girls played an all around team game to help keep pressure when Live Oak was on the advantage.
“When the ball did get down (in the offensive zone), whole team was down there to support,” Sanders said.
For Guthormsen, the game was one she will remember.
“It was my favorite game of the entire season, and I’m not even exaggerating,” Guthormsen said.
She said she didn’t have the best of days at school and came out on the field with some extra focus.
“The way we played, we leveled ourselves to their competition and they’re one of the tougher teams in our league. We just matched their level today. I know it doesn’t turn out that way in the score, but as a team, we played really well.”
Natalie Escobar put the Lancers on the board in the 11th minute when she redirected a shot from just inside the 25-yard line.
The blazing shot redirected twice before going into the back of the Acorn cage.
Escobar made it 2-0 in the 15th minute when again the Acorns’ defense got spread out and she capitalized on a feed from Claire Aldridge in front of the goal.
After the second goal, Sanders called timeout to get her girls to refocus and to start shutting down some of the tactics St. Francis was using to beat them.
“We were really focusing on our midfielders or our forwards to keep coming back after losing the ball and they were able to intercept the ball a little bit more,” Sanders said.
Live Oak shut down the Lancers for the rest of the half and mid way through the second.
St. Francis broke through finally in the 15th minute when Alex Gallagher took advantage of traffic in front of the Live Oak goal and pushed the third goal across.
The Acorns will host Leland 3:30 p.m. Friday as the season begins to wind down.
