Dos Pueblos’ Weslea Greyson takes the ball away from the DP goal. (Maddie Hoover / Presidio Sports)
A last-minute score from Kiara Pickett led Dos Pueblos past Santa Barbara 2-1 in a Channel League matchup at Peabody Stadium on Tuesday night.
“The Dons made it very difficult for us tonight,” said Chargers head coach Hugh Hollis. “However, it was good to see the girls stick to their task successfully and mentally focus.”
With only seconds remaining in the match, Pickett scored the game-winning goal for Dos Pueblos. The sophomore received a pass from Courtney Miller from 25 yards out and skipped by two defenders before slotting the ball past the Santa Barbara keeper.
“In the end, the difference was that we had a little more quality,” added Hollis. “Pickett is probably one of the best young female soccer players in our league in a one on one situation.”
At the start of the match, the Dons controlled most of the possession and scoring opportunities. However, the Chargers showed a lot of resilience and was able to break the deadlock with a score in the 27th minute.
This goal took place when Malia Morales found Ady Willett in the box for a nice pass. The senior went on to flick a header onto the feet of Idalis Rodriguez, who netted the ball into the far post.
After trailing by one at the half, Santa Barbara worked hard to level the score and successfully found the net in the 60th minute. With some good approach work down the left hand side, a Dons striker was able to beat Dos Pueblos keeper Anali Salazar to tie the game up at 1-1.
Following this, Santa Barbara had a very good opportunity to take the lead but was prevented by some good defending from Chargers’ center back Angela Penza. This seemed to spark the Dos Pueblos, which responded with two very good scoring opportunities of its own.
With the victory, the Chargers improve to 5-0-1 in league. Dos Pueblos travels on the road to face Buena on Thursday.
With the defeat, the Dons falls to 1-3-2 in league. Santa Barbara play host to Ventura on Thursday.
