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Two goals by Uma Hornish, one in each half, proved the difference as South Pasadena High’s girls’ soccer team recorded a 2-1 victory over Temple City Tuesday in Rio Hondo League play.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 2-1 in league, 8-2-1 overall on the season.
As the first half was coming to a close, Hornish stole the ball from the goalkeeper’s hands and ran past a Ram defender before successfully taking a shot on goal.
“The first half we made changes to our formation based on the offensive push from the Rams,” explained South Pasadena High coach Tory Lathrop. “It helped us regain a bit of control in the midfield but we were still struggling to connect on passes, communication, and maintain possession causing us to chase a bit and give the Rams time to get shots off on goal.”
Temple City knotted the score with a second half goal. “Unfortunately a lack of communication in our defensive line caused us to give up a Ram’s goal, we just failed to clear the ball well – which has been one our biggest faults so far this year,” explained the Tigers’ coach.
Despite the score, South Pasadena made some second half adjustments “and I think it really helped us close down the midfield for the Rams, disrupting their ability to connect with each other and giving us more opportunities to work the ball around as we like to do,” said Lathrop.
The Tigers regained the lead on Hornish’s second and go-ahead score. Sophomore midfielder Valerie Gahman picked up the ball near midfield, booted the ball to Emma Barrera along the sideline. Barrera kicked the ball to the opposite side of the field, findingHornish who was in a full sprint moving toward Temple City’s goal. Hornish zipped past a defender and beat the Rams’ goalkeeper one-on-one for the score. Berrera was given the assist.
“We are still working on putting together our lineup each match and have been thwarted by injuries, illness, red cards and more – oh my!” said Lathrop, expressing overall thoughts on the season. “But I’m proud of how the entire team dug deep tonight to find the winning goal. I’m learning that our bench is deep enough where if we need to rest a player those on the bench can step in and really keep us in the match. It’s a total team effort and I think if they can continue to work on their on field communication and support of each other we’ll start to dial it in even more and continue to be successful.”
South Pasadena’s junior varsity squad shutout the Rams 4-0 to improve to 7-0 overall and 1-0 in Rio Hondo League play. Sophomore Ava Carbonara had two goals while Sarah De La O and Claire Williams both had one each. Tigers’ goalkeeper Andrea Zarazua was credited with the win.
Both the Tigers’ varsity and JV teams host La Cañada on Friday, January 11. The varsity plays at 3:30 pm and the JV at 5 p.m.
