Othello Soccer drops matches to Grandview and Connell, beats Quincy

The Huskies went 1-2 on the pitch last week, dropping a hard fought 1-0 match at Grandview Oct. 3, a 3-0 friendly at Connell Oct. 5, and then bounced back in a big way with an 8-0 win over Quincy at home Oct. 7.

Despite splitting league matches with the Greyhounds and Jacks, Othello (4-5, 1-3) still has a shot at postseason play.

“We’re sitting at 1-3 in league now with five games remaining , but need three more wins to secure a chance of making the playoffs,” coach Bernie Garza said. “The odds are against us, but the good news is we control our own destiny.”

Grandview 1

Othello 0

The Huskies and Greyhounds battled it out on Grandview’s refurbished synthetic turf. It was the first time Othello had played on an artificial surface this year.

“The girls handled the turf quite well. They actually did better than I thought they would considering we never play on turf all season,” Garza said. “It went back and forth the entire match and was highly competitive.”

The lone goal of the contest came off a freak play late in the first half.

“We made one key mistake and that cost us the game,” Garza said. “We were deadlocked at 0-0 right before halftime when Grandview’s forward took a hard shot from about 20 yards out and Giselle made the save. But simultaneously another Grandview player ran into her and knocked the ball out of her hands and scored the only goal of the match.”

Garza said the play confused the ref’s who had separate calls on the score.

“The center ref said no goal, the assistant referee said goal,” he said. “The game was stopped for a few minutes as the refs discussed the play and then concluded it was a goal.  The explanation was that the goalie did not have clear possession of the ball when the forward hit her and knocked the ball out of her hands. I told the referee that the goalkeepers need to be protected and that by running into her it caused the dropped ball. It stayed 1-0 and that was the deciding goal of the match.”

The Huskies misfortune continued as the team had several scoring opportunities bounce off the post and no goals scored. But Garza took it all in stride.

“Our defenders did really well and we actually played our best game of this year against Grandview. We just couldn’t score,” he said. “This puts us at 0-3 in league and with six games remaining we need to win four league games to even have a chance of making the post season.”

Othello 8

Quincy 0

The Huskies picked up a much needed league win Saturday with an 8-0 win over Quincy

Emily Mendez who recorded a hat trick and assisted on another goal, led the way for Othello.

“We got off to another slow first half against one of the weaker teams in the CWAC as we only scored twice,” Garza said. “But we came alive in the second half as the girls started scoring at will. We had some nice give and go sequences and the girls stepped it up a level and scored when they were in front of the goal.”  

Giselle Vasquez recorded two goals for the Huskies. Ebany Guzman, Sammy Garza and Julissa Gonzalez added one goal each.

Othello was back in action at home Tuesday against Selah (9-1-1, 5-0), but the results of the match were not available at press time.