A goal in the 77th minute from Olivia Gruginski broke a scoreless tie and propelled the Centralia girl’s soccer team to a 1-0 win over River Ridge in their season opener on Tuesday.
The Tigers were on their heels for much of the first half. But while the Hawks were possessing the ball for long stretches of time, they only strung together a couple of quality scoring chances.
The Hawks’ best chance in the first half came in the 31st minute, when a shot from Averee McClelland found its way through the Tiger back line but was scooped by Centralia keeper Braylee Blankenship.
River Ridge continued to apply pressure early in the second half. Blankenship’s best save of the night came in the 54th minute, when she dove to her left to stop a shot off the foot of Valeria Salazar-Gomez. Blankenship finished the game with six saves.
“She was (the) next one up,” Magana Reyna said of Blankenship, noting that she showed flashes on the junior varsity squad last fall. “I knew she was gonna step up this year.”
It wasn’t until the final 20 minutes that the Tigers began applying pressure the other way. Throughout the game, Magana Reyna was trying to find the right combination of outside backs and wingers, as the goal was to get upfield through them on the outside before playing the ball in upfield.
“We were struggling a little bit in the first half with that,” Magana Reyna said, while also giving credit to his center backs and defensive mid for holding it down while they made their adjustments.
“Bella (Gomez) and Isabelle (Gruginski) held it down while our outside backs were kind of struggling,” Magana Reyna said. “Makenna Horst also did a pretty good job of covering.”
Towards the end of the second half, he felt that they found the right combination, and it helped generate scoring chances. In the final minutes, Gruginski capitalized, scoring from the top of the penalty box to break the deadlock.
She said it felt “very good” to score the game winner, and she credited the team’s adjustments for making it possible.
“We had a talk at halftime, we said we should connect more with the wingers,” Gruginski said. “It was just better … We just need to calm down and pass it around with each other.”
Magana Reyna was impressed with Gruginski, calling her the “engine” and “work horse” of the team. On Tuesday, she played several positions, including striker and center mid.
“We’re trying her everywhere,” Magana Reyna said. “She likes to be involved everywhere.”
The Tigers will look to build on the final stretch of Tuesday’s win on Thursday, when they will travel to Elma to take on the Eagles at 7 p.m.
