Becca Braly was confused when Laguna Blanca girls soccer coach Gregg Luna started calling her “Little Messi.”
“My hair bands always break in the middle of the game and my hair flies everywhere and he would get mad, so I thought he was talking about that, as in ‘messy.’ It took me half the season to realize that Messi is a player,” admitted the sophomore.
Luna draws the comparison because, like FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi, Braly is small in stature but doesn’t let it keep her from plowing around the field and producing goals. She had two of them on Tuesday as the Owls avenged an earlier loss to rival Cate with a 3-0 home win.
Cate's Georgina Walker, left, and Laguna's Becca Braly.
Cate handed the defending Condor League champs their only league loss of the season on January 16th, when Georgina Walker scored in the final minutes to give the Rams a 3-2 win. It left the Owls, who made it all the way to the CIF semifinals last season, feeling a bit deflated.
“We were kind of a step behind for awhile after losing to Cate,” said Braly, who played in her first game back after missing two because of illness. “But I think after this we’re right up there again. This was such a push forward for our team.”
Cate got a couple of good runs in the opening minutes of the match, but Laguna flipped a switch about five minutes in and applied relentless pressure.
“They out-played us today. They had a great game and we were just off for some reason,” said Rams coach Lisa Holmes. “I’m not sure why, but we just didn’t have our rhythm. We played well right at the beginning of the game, but lost it.”
Lauren McAllister, Laguna’s left-footed left-side attacker, sent a couple of opportunities off the post early on before Boo Goldmuntz got the Owls on the board about 15 minutes in, scoring off of a throw-in. Rams goalie Grace Gail made a pair of great saves on McAllister break-away shots midway through the half to keep the Laguna lead at 1-0.
Braly then had a one-on-one with Temena but sent it over the crossbar. She would redeem herself with about 10 minutes left in the half, however, taking a beautiful cross from Mackenzie Scarborough to make it 2-0. Scarborough slid for the ball just before it was headed out of bounds on the baseline, sending it into Braly for a header which found the back of the net.
Laguna goalie Arabella Watters made a great save just about a minute before the halftime whistle to keep the clean sheet. Braly struck once more midway through the second half on a 20-yard laser-beam to end the day’s scoring.
Luna said that one of the keys of the day was trying to shut down Cate standout Annie Weis, and said that both Erin Stone and Izzy Greer did an admirable job with that task. It was the offense, however, which stole the show.
“We definitely did the job offensively. We could have scored a lot more but their goalie came up huge four or five times and we also hit the post a lot. Having Becca back was huge for us,” he said.
The Owls play at Thacher on Wednesday while the Rams will take on Dunn. If both teams win, they will tie for the league championship.
