On a chilly Saturday afternoon, rivals Palo Alto and Gunn engaged in a wild back-and-forth non-league match that appeared destined to end in a tie.
But standout Paly midfielder Jacey Pederson proposed a different outcome.
With just seconds remaining, Pederson took a cross from senior captain Megan Tall and tucked the ball into the bottom left corner past Gunn goalkeeper Adriana Noronha to give the Vikings a 3-2 win.
Tall set up the decisive play by maneuvering past several Gunn defenders, helping Palo Alto improve to 3-2 on the preseason. Gunn fell to 2-1-1.
“I thought we started really strong but we let in some unnecessary goals in the second half,” Palo Alto captain Sunny Lyu said. “But other than that our performance was pretty good.”
The game featured just one goal in the first 65 minutes, but both teams opened up the attack in the final 15 minutes.
The Titans notched the equalizer in the 66th minute as Michelle Carson was able to beat a defender and fire a shot past freshman goalkeeper Dhara Yu to make it 1-1.
Paly answered just four minutes later, as Heidi Moeser fired a shot into the top right corner to put the Lady Vikes up 2-1 with just over 10 minutes to play.
However, the Titans answered yet again, as a Palo Alto defensive error resulted in a Gunn corner kick that midfielder Kia Green was able to volley in to tie the match 2-2. In the end, that merely set up the heroics of Tall and Pederson.
“I really liked how we were able to come back from every goal they scored - I thought that was really impressive,” Kwasnick said. “But if we want to do well in the league we need to win games that should have been easy ones like this one."
The only goal for the first three quarters of the match came in the seventh minute, as Kwasnick scored on a header off a corner kick to put the Vikings up 1-0.
“I was glad I scored [like that]," Kwasnick said. "I’ve always wanted to score a header for the the three years I’ve been on varsity."
However Paly was unable to capitalize off such momentum as the rest of the half turned into contested play in the midfield. Junior Katie Foug of the Vikings was all over the field, assisting in critical defensive stops and had a single shot on goal that Noronha was able to prevent to keep the Titans in range of the Vikings, 1-0.
"Katie distributed the ball really well and was integral in our attack," Lyu said.
Despite being constantly stuffed at cage, Paly’s offense refused to give Noronha a break, and the shots continued to flow, with Lyu at the point of the attack with several attempts.
Noronha stayed strong however, shutting out the Paly offense for the rest of the half.
But with time winding down in the half, the Gunn offense took possession following an interference call against Palo Alto. The Titans brought the ball to the opposite side of the playing field but could not capitalize as Lyu flew on to the scene to intercept the ball and close out the half.
