On Monday, Jan. 26, the Lady Dons (6-4-1 overall, 4-2-1 PAL-Bay) traveled 1.7 miles down Alameda de las Pulgas to take on Knights of Hillsdale (2-9-1 overall, 1-0-5 PAL-Bay) for the first of two matchups between the rivals.
Although the Lady Dons eventually found a way to pick up the 2-0 win, Hillsdale’s first half offense could’ve easily put the game in the bag for the Lady Knights, if not for a several huge saves by Aragon goalkeeper Jennifer Parker.
With 16 minutes remaining in the half, Hillsdale blew two opportunities to take an early lead. With consecutive breakaways past Aragon’s back line, the Lady Knights took two shots at point-blank range inside the penalty box, with one saved by Parker, and the second sailing wide left.
Then, in the last three minutes, Hillsdale forward Tayla Kelley dribbled by three Aragon defenders, setting herself up for a chance at scoring her team’s first goal, but then elected to pass the ball across instead, leading to the eventual, unsuccessful Hillsdale corner kick.
After the halftime break, the Lady Dons came out firing. Later, 26 minutes into the second half, sophomore midfielder Sonia Chan pushed her way through to just outside of 35-yards from the goal and managed to slide the ball between the upright and the goalkeeper’s hands.
In retrospect, Chan had some doubts before taking the shot, saying, “I looked at this one, and I was thinking ‘maybe someone should touch it instead of me, because I can’t hit this.’”
However, Aragon head coach Nick Dye had a different mindset about his on his star midfielder’s ability, saying, “I see her every day in training, and she can [hit 35-yard free kicks] over and over again, so I trust her. Last season, she scored three or four goals, thirty or forty yards out, and she can crack it. She can really hit a ball.”
Immediately after, the Lady Knights came back on the attack, putting up a couple shots, but were unable to keep them on frame.
Later, it was Aragon forward Madeline Eclevia who was able to come through and deliver the dagger for the Lady Dons. In the 74th minute, Chan dribbled to the midfield line, where she lobbed a through ball into space for Eclevia. From there, Eclevia was able to bury her shot into the bottom corner.
“I think everyone came out to their best potential, and we just came out as a team,” said Chan.
After the Lady Dons’ 2-0 win, both teams are already looking forward to their next matchup in the Battle of the Fleas series on Feb. 18.
Says Chan on that matchup, “It’s gonna be even harder [to win] than this game.”
Their win on Tuesday night propelled the Lady Dons to a three-game win streak. Aragon will look to extend this streak against their next challengers, the Carlmont Scots on Thursday. Hillsdale will also play host to Burlingame on Thursday as well.
