Marysville notches first league win over Lindhurst

A quick goal was all the Marysville High girls soccer team needed to jump-start its offense.

Playing arch-rival Lindhurst at home on Thursday afternoon, the Indians struck for the game's first goal just four minutes in and cruised the rest of the way to pick up a 3-1 victory at Marks Field.

It was the first Golden Empire League win of the season for Marysville, which has found an offensive spark by beating Golden Sierra and Lindhurst in consecutive days.

"We've been challenged with finishing all year long, but you can see the light bulb has come on for us," Marysville coach Chris Osborne said. "The last few games they've started to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

Marysville got on the board early when Yesenia Godinez used some fancy dribbling to get by a Lindhurst defender and sent a perfect cross to senior captain Nallely Ferreira in the middle. Although she started the play well outside the box, Ferreira was able to maneuver her way in front of a defender and used her chest to knock the ball in the back of the net.

The goal gave the Indians all the momentum they would need as they went on to outplay Lindhurst for the rest of the first half while outshooting the Blazers 10-1.

"It set the tone for us. We're used to playing hard to come back, but it set us at ease a little bit and allowed us to push our game to the next level," Osborne said. "We can string together three passes, but the fourth one that's a killer always seems to come up short."

For Ferreira, getting that early goal was huge.

"We're kinda like a boxer that gets punched in the face and then we're done, so we had to score first," said Ferreira, who played the game in honor of her great-grandmother, grandmother and uncle, all of whom passed away in the past six months. "It was a game full of pride and that (first goal) pumped us up. If I was to choose a game where we'd get our first league win, this would be the one."

Marysville (4-7-3, 1-4-2) added to its lead in the 15th minute when Wendy Valencia corralled a pass from sophomore Alondra Lomeli and sent it in to stake the Indians to a 2-0 advantage at halftime.

"They had a little more skill and a little more speed and it showed," Lindhurst coach Jon Klingensmith said. "I think the better team won today."

Lindhurst (2-7-2, 2-5-2) finally got on the scoreboard in the 49th minute when DeeDee Yang scored off a corner kick from Alicia Parra, but Makayla Synak denied the comeback with a goal of her own and the Indians held on for the win.

"We picked up the energy in the second half, but we couldn't get that second goal," said Klingensmith, who praised the play of Kia Vang, Mai Lia Xiong and Ellie Yang. "We had the momentum going, but that third goal just took the wind out of our sails."

Synak and center defender Marimar Terriquez both played well defensively for Marysville.

Lindhurst won the junior varsity match 2-1.

Vanessa Oseguera and Ashley Yang scored a goal each and Rosa Parra added an assist for the Blazers (3-7-1, 2-7-1).