Second-half push propels Crescenta Valley girls’ soccer past Burbank
Still looking for its first win of the season, the Burbank High girls’ soccer team was hoping its Pacific League match Tuesday afternoon against Crescenta Valley would be the game to reverse its fortunes.
For the Falcons, they were looking to keep things moving in the right direction in what has started out as a promising season that included two straight league victories.
For the first half, the Bulldogs were able to keep pace with Crescenta Valley, which had its share of scoring opportunities.
However, the first 40 minutes ended in a stalemate.
The Falcons were finally able to make good on some of the opportunities in the second half, getting goals from Brianna McReynolds and Nikki Collins to lift Crescenta Valley to a 2-0 victory against visiting Burbank.
With the win, Crescenta Valley (7-2, 3-0 in league) remained unbeaten in Pacific League play.
With the Falcons unable to score in the first half, coach Tyraysha Peterson made some adjustments at halftime that seemed to work against the Bulldogs (0-7, 0-3).
“The one good thing about this team is the players are really receptive to the tweaks and the changes that we make and we made some of those today at halftime,” Peterson said. “They were able to come out in that second half and they were able to implement some of the changes that I think helped us. There is that trust with these players with some of the things that we’ve been working on that we’ve really seen in the last couple of games.
“This team has a great feel about it. There are 15 seniors, so there is a lot of leadership in a lot of different ways.”
With the loss, Burbank and coach Erik Montoya are still left searching for answers. The Bulldogs, who tied for third place in league last season and won a playoff game, realize that to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot, they have to turn things around soon.
“This has really been a confidence-breaker for them,” said Montoya, who indicated this will be his last season with the Bulldogs. “They are just all down on themselves and they think they’re doing something wrong. But it’s not that. We’re just not finishing our opportunities and it’s just as plain and simple as that.
“This team has the talent to turn things around I and really think they have it in them to do that.”
The Falcons had a good opportunity to take a lead in the first half when McReynolds powered a shot on goal in the 15th minute. However, the ball was just tipped over the crossbar by goalkeeper Nicole Winters.
Burbank’s best chance in the first 40 minutes came three minutes into the game. On a corner kick, the ball rattled around in front of the goal, but Crescenta Valley keeper Nicole Jabourian deflected two shots.
“In that first half, when we didn’t score, I tried and stay calm,” McReynolds said. “Because when I stay calm, I feel it calms the rest of the team down. We just tried to keep calm and keep shooting.”
Seven minutes into the second half, the Falcons scored. Collins drifted past the Burbank defense 40 yards out, dribbled in and took a hard shot. Winters batted the shot away, but McReynolds was waiting at the far post and she blasted it in for a 1-0 lead.
The roles were reversed on the team’s second goal in the 75th minute when Collins scored on a perfect corner from McReynolds.
Burbank’s best scoring opportunity of the second half came in the 79th minute when Pricilla Romero blasted a shot that was deflected over the crossbar by Jabourian.
