Citrus, who is in the Western State Conference and hasn’t played against AVC since 2000, drew even on the series at one game apiece, as they gave AVC a dose of their own medicine by shutting them out. AVC beat Citrus 6-0 in 2000.
After a scoreless first half, Citrus took control in the second scoring three unanswered goals — beating AVC to almost every loose ball and dominating the pace of the game with their physical style of play.
“The first half we outplayed them, but we didn’t connect,” AVC head coach Jerry Stupar said. “When they had the opportunities going into the second half, they connected on those opportunities … opportunities that we should have connected on.
“They were comboing a lot, they were cutting a lot, and we were diving in on that,” Stupar said.
“They physically beat us to balls,” AVC team captain Carla Hager said. “We weren’t ready for that, we came out real soft.”
Emphatic winds caused a bevy of problems for both teams. Going with the wind, a pass from the sweeper to a midfielder would sail deep into the opposing team’s territory. But this was more acceptable than going against the wind — every time the ball was kicked in the air it would backspin causing miscommunication and a ball of confusion.
Emphatic winds caused a bevy of problems for both teams. Going with the wind, a pass from the sweeper to a midfielder would sail deep into the opposing team’s territory. But this was more acceptable than going against the wind — every time the ball was kicked in the air it would backspin causing miscommunication and a ball of confusion.
So teams had to rely on short passes. Citrus mastered the short pass game as they took advantage of the defensive breakdowns, while AVC struggled. The predominantly freshman AVC team certainly has some tweaks to work out within their system.
Some adjustments, both mental and physical, have to be made before any chemistry can begin to build.
“We weren’t connecting very well,” AVC forward Beatrice Giles said. “We need to learn from this game that we need to work as a team and connect on our passes and talk to each other.”
AVC has not dropped two straight games since 2008. They host L.A. Mission (0-3), another Western State Conference team, at 4 p.m. Sept. 10 at Marauder Stadium. In the two games played dating back to 2008, AVC has never lost to Mission, beating them 2-0 in 2008 and 3-1 in 2009.
-By Donjai Richardson
