Belmont Remains, Grant Romps, 11-0

In their second meeting in a week, the Grant High girls’ soccer team defeated Belmont, 11-0, Tuesday afternoon in a Mid-Valley/North Conference match at Belmont.

And this time, the teams played for more than 15 minutes.

First-year Belmont Coach Neal La Sala pulled his team out of the match last week because the Sentinels trailed Grant, 5-0, after 15 minutes.

This time around, the Lancers (13-3, 9-0) had a pair of goals knocked in for them by Belmont (1-9, 1-9). Nicole Bucciarelli scored four times, and Jamie Mond and Jessica Sierra each had three goals.

Despite the score, La Sala was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I expected a lot worse,” said La Sala, who was reprimanded by Belmont officials after last week’s forfeit. “I told my players I was proud of them no matter what happened, but they rose to the occasion.”

For two of the Sentinels, the ball was only a secondary concern. Defenders Margarita Mora and Miriam Tapia had explicit instructions from La Sala to stay as close as they could to Bucciarelli, who has 44 goals in 16 matches.

Bucciarelli spent much of the afternoon jostling and colliding with her twin shadows, and said after the match that it was the tightest she had ever been defended.

“It was crazy. They were like bugs that wouldn’t go away,” said Bucciarelli, who played all but 10 minutes. “Everywhere I went, they followed me and they kept telling me to stop stepping on their toes.”

Despite the presence of her clumsy partners, Bucciarelli had little trouble rising above them when opportunity knocked.

After receiving credit for a goal that Belmont’s Eldy Palencia kicked into her own net less than two minutes into the match, Bucciarelli earned the Lancers’ next two scores.

At the six-minute mark she charged hard to the goal, following a shot by Jamie Mond, and kicked the rebound over Belmont goalie Claudia Sanchez and into the net.

Ten minutes later, Bucciarelli stood in the center of the Sentinels’ penalty area, awaiting a corner kick by Kaitlin Walzer. As Walzer booted the ball toward her, Bucciarelli head-faked left to lose her escorts, then cut right, and in one smooth move redirected the ball past Sanchez with her right foot.

“She’s got the talent to circumvent whatever you throw at her,” said La Sala.

Grant (13-3, 9-0), which dressed only 13 players for the match, led, 7-0, at halftime.

The second half was shortened to 31 minutes by the referees.