Carpinteria girls soccer escaped with a 1-0 win over Malibu on Wednesday in a defensive battle.
The win continued Carpinteria’s (5-0, 2-0) perfect start to the season.
“I feel we had been riding high with this streak of wins but today the reality of competitive league play brought us back to earth,” Warriors coach Freddy Martinez said. “Malibu is an excellent team but we made this match harder than we needed to.”
The Warriors had a few scoring chances early, but none were converted until the 33rd minute when Keilly Hernandez served the ball to Kaydance Gardener, who nailed a chip shot to beat the keeper and go up 1-0.
Going into halftime, Carpinteria maintained control of the match.
However, Malibu gained some momentum in the second half and began to press into the attacking side of the field.
The Warriors then went to a more defensive formation and that did the trick, as the defense held strong and Carpinteria picked up the shutout victory.
Next up for the Warriors is a matchup with Nordhoff on Friday.
Boys
On the boys side, Carpinteria battled to a 3-3 draw with Malibu on Wednesday.
Malibu jumped out to an early lead, scoring in the first eight minutes.
However, the Warriors settled in and scored the equalizer just minutes later on a goal from Raul Reyes.
Reyes stayed hot soon after, netting his second goal of the game to give Carpinteria its first lead.
“Raul Reyes’s work ethic is amazing, he battles for every ball and is always looking for ways to help out the team,” Carpinteria coach Gerardo Rodriguez said.
He wasn’t done yet. Still in the first half, Reyes found his way through the Malibu defense and secured the hat trick along with a 3-1 advantage.
However, Malibu came out of the locker room fired up and dominated the second half.
The visitors found the back of the net twice in the half, but were unable to secure the go-ahead score, resulting in a draw.
“We had the momentum during most of the first half but we need to learn not to make too many mistakes in our half and give teams scoring opportunities,” Rodriguez said. “We need to finish off our games whether we have the lead or not.”
Carpinteria will take on Nordhoff on Friday.
