Turlock high-steps to a win vs. Golden Valley

Turlock High School girls soccer coach Temo Arteaga gave Sophie Warda her marching orders at halftime, and it resulted in a 2-1 Central California Conference victory over Golden Valley on Friday at Joe Debely Field.

“The gap between the defender and our midfielders is like, always open,” Warda said. “(Temo) kept screaming from across the field in the first half to send the ball, and I didn’t know what he was saying. At halftime, I had a good grip of what to do.

“So, the second half came and I sent the ball once and it didn’t work at all. Then, I got the ball once more and I saw the gap was huge. I just hit a perfect ball to the right side of their defender and Kishauna (Mavis) made her run perfectly and stayed onsides.”

Warda sent a ball from midfield to Mavis, running along the right sideline about 30 yards ahead. Mavis then hit a one-timer from about 25 yards out, placing the ball in the upper-right corner for the winner in the 76th minute.

“I really didn’t know what to do at first,” Mavis said. “It just came and I was like, ‘I’ll just one-touch it.’ And it went in. It surprised me just as much as it surprised anyone else.”

Golden Valley (3-1 CCC) took a 1-0 lead five minutes into the contest when Megan Pust gathered a loose ball and popped it in from 12 yards out.

Bulldogs goalie Jadyn Tubbs came off her line and arrived at the ball at the same time as Pust. When neither could control the ball, it squirted free and Tubbs was caught out of position.

“As a goalie, I need to come out for that ball 100 percent,” Tubbs said. “I played against Megan in travel league, so I know she goes after the ball hard. She’s a solid player.”

Tubbs made up for her miscue with eight saves, two of the highlight-reel variety.

“That first one, she was kind of playing it safe a little bit,” Arteaga said. “But after that goal she came back, she realized that’s not good enough and she came back and made some incredible saves for us and kept us in the game.”

The Bulldogs (2-0 CCC) evened the score 1-1 in the 24th minute when Stephanie Zamora took a pass from Maureen Clark and scored from about 10 yards out.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Turlock high-steps to a win vs. Golden Valley."