The Saugus girls soccer team trailed 1-0 for almost 75 minutes of the game against West Ranch on Thursday afternoon.
The last five minutes however, belonged to Saugus, as two late goals by Alana Berens and Abbey Negosian gave the Centurions a 2-1 victory on their home field.
Berens blasted a goal into the back of the net in the 75th minute and Negosian was able to gather the ball after several deflections off a corner kick and skipped it over West Ranch goalkeeper Hannah Everitt in the waning moments of the game.
“Alana was right there in the right spot. We work on stuff like that in practice. We’ve worked hard on set pieces, defending them and offensively trying to take advantage of those things,” Saugus head coach Kevin Miner said. “That ball was batted around I don’t know many times and Abbey was right there in the right place at the right time and knocked it in.”
The game-tying goal got the Saugus bench of its feet and sparked a momentum boost in the Cents’ favor.
“I knew this would hype everyone up. I knew when the ball came to me I had to make the shot, and as soon as I made it everyone was hyped up,” Berens said. “I told them, ‘we got this we will win this game.’”
Saugus was the aggressor in the latter stages of the game, firing a handful of shots on goal and earning three second-half corner kicks.
West Ranch was unable to get off a shot in the second half and had no corner kicks on the afternoon.
“I think it was a chaotic game all together. No one was in a good flow. It was a lot of kick ball back and forth and that’s not really our style,” West Ranch head coach Jared White said. “When teams do that we get a little unorganized and we didn’t get in a rhythm or a flow.”
Senior forward Tatum Summerfield scored in the first minute of the game for the Wildcats, as she arched the ball into the top left corner of the net.
But after that score the Centurions defense gave up only two other shots on goal the entire afternoon.
“We preach limit opportunities and that’s what they do,” Miner said about his defense. “They’re aggressive and if they make a mistake they hustle back and win the ball back. They make it very difficult for teams to beat us and as long as they stay healthy and continue to play the way they are playing I see some good things happening for this team.”
“Our defense is fantastic. Our whole team works together very well and everyone is always working,” Berens added. “I’m proud of everyone.”
Both teams will have some time off before league play starts up again in January.
West Ranch will use the time off to get healthy and get back to their typical training regimen.
“The girls are gaining some valuable experience and now we get a long break to get healthy and get back to our nice routine of training and get after it,” White said.
Hart 5, Valencia 0
The Indians moved to 2-0 in the conference with the win over the Vikings and have yet to concede a goal in league play.
Ally Thompson scored twice and Alyssa Irwin, Elizabeth MacArthur and Jensen Shrout all added goals for Hart.
Canyon 2, Golden Valley 1
The Cowboys notched their first win in the Foothill League defeating the Grizzlies on the road on Thursday afternoon.
