Lady Apaches FC season sweeps YWLA

The Gonzales Lady Apaches FC inched closer to the second seed in District 27-4A with a 2-1 home win over the YWLA Lady Cardinals on Monday, March 11.

The Lady Apaches battled through adversity throughout the match after trailing, 1-0, after the first half.

Lady Apaches head soccer coach Shantael Trimm knew heading into this game that it was important, especially with second place on the line.

“At this point we have a pretty solid playoff position, regardless of these last two games; however, to keep our second place space and go into playoffs in a better position, winning this game and the next game when we play Memorial is really important and the girls knew that and they rallied back,” Trimm said.

The Lady Apaches rallied back in the second half with scores by Bella Aguero and EmmaJeanna Riojas; Riojas scored the game winner in the final six minutes and sacrificed her body to get the goal.

“Really just to win, we want to make it to playoffs. You know? We work so hard for what we have and everyone just doubts us most of the time, but I think we really have something here,” Riojas said.

Trimm knew when she put Riojas in the game, she was going to get the goal that her team needed.

“Before I sent her in up there, I just turned around and made eye contact with her and I had a gut feeling about Emma, because she is such a hard-working soccer player. Maybe she doesn't have the most years of experience under her belt, but she does not back down from a challenge and she went in there, one on one, with that goalie and she did it for us,” Trimm said.

Gonzales shut down the Lady Cardinals’ offense throughout the second half and Yaritza Angel was proud to contribute in the defense.
“Everyone was nervous because they didn't want to mess up, but we kept our head in the game and then we just kept trying. They really didn't want throw it too much so they just tried their best,” Angel said.

The Lady Apaches played their last match against San Antonio Memorial with second place on the line Wednesday, March 13.

Trimm said her team rested Tuesday, March 12 to recover from injuries and get ready for Memorial.

“We have a lot of injuries right now. We were down three starting players there at the end of the game and didn't have any subs left, so I really need them to get healthy, get their bodies healthy so that we can be ready for Memorial and then going into playoffs,” Trimm said.