Goals by Amanda Diesen and Courtney Stonesifer produced the offense needed to give No. 6 ranked Westmont a 2-1 Golden State Athletic Conference win over the Hawks of San Diego Christian on Homecoming Saturday at Westmont.
The Warriors improved to 8-0-1 on the season and 2-0 in GSAC play. San Diego Christian is 6-2-1, 0-1-1 GSAC.
“It was not the prettiest of games,” acknowledged head coach Kristi Kiely, “but I am proud of the team to grind it out and get the result. We are in the time of the season that you need to be able to grind it out. I give a lot of credit to San Diego Christian; they were difficult to play against today.”
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead late in the first half, when Diesen scored off a corner kick by Stonesifer in the 41st minute.
Just over a minute into the second half, the Hawks tied the score at one. Vivian Oray dribbled past multiple Warrior defenders and fired into the upper right corner of the net.
The game remained tied for more the 30 minutes before Stonesifer scored the winning goal in the 78th minute. After a Warrior throw-in, the ball was headed once in the air by a Warrior, kicked nearly straight-up by a Hawk, headed again by a Warrior, and headed once more by a Hawk before finding the feet of Stonesifer. Stonesifer settled the ball with her right foot, turned and fired toward the near post with her left foot.
“Courtney has been working hard for the last couple of weeks of training,” said Kiely. “At halftime we told her that she needs to look to finish and shoot more. She is so quick to dish it off and play in the background. Thankfully she did.”
Kiely was also pleased with the play of Mallory Mitchell who sat out the first half.
