The Aubrey Lady Chaparrals soccer team secured their fifth district win of the season with a come-from-behind 8-3 win over the Gainesville Lady Leopards on Monday night.
In their first match after a long layoff because of the recent ice storm, the Lady Chaps fell behind 3-1 early but found their footing toward the end of the opening period and took control of the match.
“It’s rough when you haven’t practiced in almost two weeks,” said Kelli Baker, Aubrey head girls soccer coach. “We came out sluggish and went down 3-1 in the first half, but we battled and took the lead, 4-3, at halftime. You never want to get behind, but it showed a lot of character and grit and gave us something to think about going forward into maybe the postseason.”
Gainesville struck first in the matchup, finding the back of the net halfway through the first half.
A few minutes later, Lady Chap Daniella Dominic-Etuk tied the match with Aubrey’s first goal of the night.
The Lady Leopards answered with back-to-back successful penalty kicks, taking a 3-1 lead.
Aubrey responded with a 3-0 scoring run fueled by Brynnlee Bohannon, Landry Gannon and Dominic-Etuk, taking a 4-3 lead as the match hit the halfway point.
Peyton Canterbury kept the Lady Chaps’ scoring barrage rolling, sneaking a shot by Gainesville’s goalkeeper and extending Aubrey’s lead to 5-3 early in the second half.
The Lady Chaps continued to pour on the points and pull away in the second half, closing the game with another 3-0 run powered by Bohannon, Gannon and Canterbury, earning the win, 8-3.
“We needed that first goal to boost our confidence because we were down 3-1,” Dominic-Etuk said. “When we scored, it helped us gather ourselves, communicate better, start making [better] passes and make smarter runs.”
While Aubrey’s offense was pulling away with seven unanswered goals, the Lady Chaps’ defense recovered from a shaky start, smothering Gainesville’s defense over the remainder of the match.
“Once our teammates started scoring, we got that boost, and we were like, ‘We can’t let them score and let our morale go down again,’ so we started communicating more and being more aware of where their players were around us,” said center back Jordin Gomez. “… And as the game went on and as we were communicating better with each other that gave our midfielders more chances to distribute the ball to our forwards and gave us more opportunities to score.”
The Lady Chaps currently sit in second place in their district with a 5-1 district record, and Baker spoke highly of the growth he’s seen from the team this season.
“This year everyone has stepped up when we’ve needed them,” he said. “We had a freshman score two goals tonight, so it’s not just the superstars. This entire team has upped its level of play every day, and if we can continue to get better, then we can do what we did last year, where we’re playing our best soccer at the end of the season.”
Aubrey will return to the pitch to face Sanger for senior night at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Chaparral Memorial Stadium.
