Grizzlies run past Indians

Marysville coach Chris Osborne needed only a sentence to aptly describe the Indians' regular season finale.

"We've had better days out here," he said.

After coughing up a goal in the opening minute, the Indians girls soccer team never recovered and fell 5-2 to visiting Golden Sierra at home in a matchup of the Golden Empire League's top two teams.

"We struggled a bit to finish and that was our downfall today," Osborne said. "Golden Sierra is an outstanding finishing team."

And the Grizzlies proved it quickly. On the second possession of the game, Golden Sierra's MacKenzi Gleason streaked downfield, split the defense with ease and buried a shot past Marysville keeper Angela Findley.

It established a theme as Findley and teammates Jamie Danielson-McKeague and Alex Dukes used their size, speed and aggressiveness to control the tempo in the first half. Danielson-McKeague scored a pair of goals and Alex Dukes also scored.

"Marysville has a high-powered offense and it was important to get a lead to hold back the scoring expertise of their team," Grizzlies coach David Gleason said.

But before the Grizzlies opened up what would be an insurmountable 4-1 halftime lead, the Indians had a chance to knot the game, but were denied by some stellar goalkeeping and an off-target rebound shot.

In the 16th minute, sophomore standout Mariah Surface made a series of slick moves to shake the Grizzlies midfielders and defenders down the left-hand sideline and fired a gorgeous pass to Jennifer Valencia in front of the net, who was fouled to set up a penalty kick.

Valencia's kick went low and to the left and was stopped on a gorgeous save by Grizzlies goalie Kayla Anderson. The ball then jutted out to the left-hand side of the goal where Wendy Arechiga sent a shot wide from less than 10 feet out.

After Golden Sierra had put the score at 3-0, the Indians' Paula Mota scored on a high-arching shot that sailed over Anderson's head. Then after the Grizzlies put the score at 5-1, courtesy of a goal that came off a Marysville defender, Alyssa Villa scored off a pretty assist from Arechiga.

The second half, aside from the own-goal, was a much stronger 40 minutes for the Indians, which pleased their coach, who was quick to point out their solid defense on corner kicks and their ability to stop Gleason, who looked unstoppable prior to halftime.

The good news for Marysville fans is that the outcome had no bearing on the postseason. Prior to the contest, the Indians (8-5, 8-2-2) were already locked in to a playoff position and cemented in second place in the GEL standings behind the Grizzlies (16-3-2, 11-0-1).

What truly matters for the Indians comes next Tuesday, when they make the three-plus hour drive to face Mariposa County in the first round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI playoffs.

And regardless of the outcome against the Grizzlies, Osborne is confident in his young team.

"I like our odds on Tuesday and following throughout to Thursday," he said.

The Marysville junior varsity team defeated the Grizzlies 4-1 to complete a perfect GEL campaign. Saharay Lomeli had a pair of goals and Rosa Gonzales and Gavin Frost each scored for Marysville (12-1, 10-0).