Lennard Girls Soccer: Front row: volunteer coach Rigo; #15 midfielder Brenda Rodriquez; #25 defender Zaria Goldson; #1 midfielder Gisselle Ramos; #20 defender Bailey Robinson; #7 midfielder Amiya Shelman; #2 defender Madison Bennett; #13 forward Aniah Rasool; and #5 forward Gabrielle Michel. Second row: goalkeeper Clautide Michel; #9 defender Jazmin Vargas; #11 midfielder Izahri Sanchez; #21 midfielder Victoria Blaszyk; #24 defender Kaitlyn Tyler; #10 midfielder Alissa Lopez; #19 midfielder Jocelyn Diaz; goalkeeper Karina Ramis-Davis; volunteer Johanna Ramirez; goalkeeper Kathleen O’Hair; #6 midfielder Larissa Saldana; #17 midfielder Olivia Michel; #3 forward Sadieann Vitale; volunteer coach Fedelly Felinor; #12 midfielder Shanya Luke; and head coach Vanessa Escobar.
Lady Longhorns bounce back with tie
By Steve Jackson
The Lady Longhorns soccer team showed resiliency and spunk as they bounced back from an early-week blowout to tie Armwood last Friday night 2-2 under soggy conditions at home.
Lennard goes on the holiday break and will return to play on Jan. 8 against conference leader Bloomingdale on the road. That will be followed by another conference game away against King. Then the Lady Longhorns have another away game against Hillsborough on Jan. 15 before returning home to face Freedom on Jan. 18 and hosting Newsome on Jan. 22 to end the regular season. Both home games start at 6 p.m. at the Lennard High field. The Lady Longhorn conference record is 1-1-2 and overall 2-6-2.
Against Armwood, Katie Rocha had 1 goal and 2 shots on goal and her strong play from start to finish was instrumental in holding off Armwood to avoid a conference loss. She challenged every ball and player that came her way as well as finding the net once.
Lennard Coach Vanessa Escobar had mixed emotions about the outcome. “It was nice that the girls bent but did not break,” said Escobar after the tie. “However, we had a mental lapse to let the game end in a tie.”
The Longhorns had a victory within their grasp.
They were up 2-1 with only 20 seconds on the clock. A kick out of bounds or killing the clock would have given the Longhorns the upset win outright. But Armwood came up with a big play and goal to force the tie for their first score since an early corner kick gave them a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game.
The Longhorns were demolished Dec. 11 at Gaither 7-0 in their worst showing of the season. Alissa Lopez kept the game from being worse than it was. She played well offensively and defensively and kept up the Lennard’s spirit as they were working to avoid the mercy rule.
