Authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, Washington
Elizabeth Becerra of the Warriors high five's teammates after scoring her first goal against the Hot Shots during the title game.
Make it two in a row for the Warriors.
The team dressed in all black knocked off the Hot Shots 3-0 to claim its second consecutive women’s soccer league championship Monday at Cowan Stadium.
“It’s great, it’s been fun to play with this team,” said the Warriors’ Elizabeth Becerra, who had a foot in all her team’s scoring, of winning the championship.
The Warriors defeated the Hot Shots 1-0 in last year’s fall league championships.
After a very physical first half full of shots on goal, the Warriors took a 1-0 lead into halftime. Ball possession was fairly equal by both squads and each team spent about as much time as the other on the offensive attack.
The second half was just as physical as the first players fought for possession of the ball, which typically ended with one player lying on the ground. The difference in this half, however, was the Warriors’ stronger offensive surges and the lack thereof for the Hot Shots.
“At the half I told our players that we needed another goal,” said team captain Anjee Brooks. “I said to keep the ball out of the backfield, just clear it and keep shooting and we ended up with three (goals).”
The game looked as though it would end 1-0, but with about five minutes left Becerra gained possession of the ball and netted her second goal of the game from 15 yards out. Just minutes later Becerra assisted on the game’s final score, which was put in by Sarah Kingery.
Becerra said it was the team’s familiarity with each other and execution of fundamentals that helped them to their championship.
“We passed really great and we can depend on each other,” she said. “We play well together and we know where each other will be at (on the field) so we didn’t have too many issues with that. Our communication was definitely key. It’s been a great season.”
Becerra’s importance to her team was exemplified by her stellar performance in the most important game of the season — this comes as no surprise to Brooks.
“She is the feeder. She controls the middle,” said Brooks of Becerra. “But she can also shoot.”
As much elation as there was on the Warriors’ sidelines there was an equal amount of dejection on the Hot Shots’ bench after losing to the Warriors again.
“We normally play better than we played (Monday),” said Hot Shots head coach Carlos Tienda. “Though I’ve got to give it to (the Hot Shots). They played well, passed well and positioned themselves well to score.”
Though the Hot Shots suffered its first loss of the season in the championship game, Tienda was happy with his squad’s undefeated regular season.
“Being undefeated and playing the way we play speaks for itself,” he said. “We are a talented team and are a top notch team, it’s just that these last two (championship) games, some how, some way, we’ve come up somewhat short.”
Print
E-Mail