Santa Teresa took advantage of a late penalty call to win 3-2 at Live Oak in Blossom Valley Athletic League Mount Hamilton Division girls soccer action Tuesday afternoon. The victory enabled the Saints (10-1-2, 8-0-1, 25 points, BVAL-MH) to remain unbeaten in league play. It was a tough defeat for the Acorns (4-6-1, 4-3-1, 13), who held Santa Teresa to a 0-0 tie in the teams' first meeting.
The teams appeared to be headed for another tie when Live Oak was whistled for a penalty on the last play of the match. Noelle Lara converted the spot kick and the Saints were able to keep their perfect record (7-0-0) away from home.
On the decisive penalty, Live Oak switched goalkeepers, moving Alissa Pham, who had scored earlier, into the net to defend the shot.
“Being goalie I was really nervous," Pham said. "I knew which way she was going by the way her hips turned. I jumped over to that side hoping to catch it, but I missed.”
Live Oak took a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute as Carly Kyle assisted Sabrina Rice for a goal.
“I made a run down the line,” said Rice, “Shannon passed it to Carly and I yelled for Carly to play the ball through. She did and I quickly shot to the bottom left corner.”
A few possessions later, the Saints tied the match as Lara scored off an assist from Katie Hadfield in the 13th minute. Hadfield then notched another assist on a goal by Nicole Alper to make it 2-1 in the 29th minute.
“I feel it was a very close matched game,” said Saints coach Richard Spencer. “I think Live Oak started the best team and then Santa Teresa started to get on top of it a little bit."
Santa Teresa took the 2-1 lead into the break and held it until the 75th minute, when Pham scored off an assist from Shannon Rauschnot.
“Shannon assisted me and I just kind of ran in and headed it hoping that I would get it into the goal and not over," Pham said.
Spencer felt fortunate the match turned out in his team's favor.
"In the second half it was very much the same. Live Oak dominated the first part of it and then they got their deserved equalizer towards the end," Spencer said. "Luckily for us, we managed to score a penalty in the last minute which those are the kinds of calls go for you one game and go against you another game. Fortunately today it was a good one for us.”
