A matchup against first-place Buena quickly turned sour for the Dos Pueblos High girls’ soccer team.
Buena senior forward Amalia Nolan completed a hat trick with three goals in the first 14 minutes of the game. The Chargers regrouped and battled for the remainder of the contest but never recovered on the scoreboard in a 5-1 loss on Thursday night.
“Once we adjusted and matched their intensity, I thought it was a good battle between two good teams,” said Dos Pueblos coach Marcos Medina. “After that it was really a 2-1 score, so I thought my girls competed.”
Two of Nolan’s three goals came off rebounds as her work rate and finishing touch gave the Bulldogs a commanding lead very early in the game.
“We weren’t quite ready at the start of the game, and they were sending runners overlapping in the middle and it was hard for us to adjust to the speed of the game,” Medina said. “They have quality players so credit to them.”
A bright spot for Dos Pueblos was freshman Maleka Wilcox, who got the Chargers on the board with a goal in the 34th minute that cut the Dos Pueblos deficit to 3-1. Wilcox dribbled into the box at a seemingly impossible angle and blasted a shot into the side netting.
The goal seemed to give Dos Pueblos momentum and confidence and a free-kick by Wilcox from 30 yards out looped toward goal before going just over the crossbar near the end of the first half.
Five freshman received significant playing time over the course of the game for Dos Pueblos. The Chargers also received excellent leadership to keep fighting from senior captains Maggie Gallup, Katie Peterson and Maddy Jones.
In the 55th minute, Buena regained control of the match when Buena’s Kayalily Penn, a transfer from Bishop Diego who scored a Santa Barbara County record 52 goals as a freshman, chipped a shot over the Dos Pueblos goalkeeper and into the back of the net increasing the Bulldogs’ lead to 4-1.
Penn continued to put her mark on the match when she delivered a free kick into the box that Tatiana Padilla finished off with a right-footed shot to put Buena ahead 5-1 in the 63rd minute.
“It’s a long season everyone is very competitive. Coming off the break it’s hard to get back into the swing of things,” said Buena coach Amanda Tewes. “At the end of the day we’re trying to do our job finishing off the rest of the season so that we can handle business.”
Dos Pueblos (6-8-2 overall, 3-5-1 Channel League) will host Rio Mesa in its next game on Saturday at 12:30.