Kickers win pair

Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Bainbridge girls soccer team held on to defeat the Bishop Blanchet Braves 2-1 to win their first Metro League game of the season Friday.

Head coach Anh Tran said he knows they’ll play better in the weeks to come.

“That’s how good teams go forward… being able to defend ourselves against those (cross and corner) kicks,” he said. “We’ve got a month and a half to work on it.”

The Spartans didn’t take long to score, as midfielder Ashley Waplinger made a nice cross pass to forward Caitlyn Salo, who put it in from 10 yards out in the fifth minute.

In the 22nd minute, midfielder Maureen Callahan put a pass right on the mark to midfielder Dina Singer, who got it past the Blanchet goalie for their second score.

But in the second half, the Braves turned up the pressure and got a break in the 53rd minute, as Natalie Munger got past two Spartan defenders and took a shot that bounced off the crossbar.

She was able to make it past goalkeeper Jessie Vincent and put in the rebound.

Blanchet had a few more scoring opportunities, but were turned away by a strong Bainbridge defense.

Defender Lindsey Montoya cleared a ball out on a Devin Gilmore corner kick, while Vincent made several big saves, including one off another Blanchet corner kick and a free kick.

Hannah Oshin nearly had an assist when she made a great cross pass to Callahan, but the Blanchet keeper got the save.

Lindsey Montoya said Bainbridge dodged some big shots and needs to work on their communication skills.

“We haven’t really bonded too much,” she said. “We aren’t as close as we were last year. We’re doing fine, but we need to feel more comfortable with each other. There wasn’t very much talking at all on defense.”

The Spartans defeated Chief Sealth 9-0 last Monday, as nine different Spartans scored. Bainbridge (1-0, 3-1) traveled to West Seattle yesterday. They host Eastside Catholic Thursday at home in the first of five straight league games. Match time is 5:15 p.m.