Clean sheet times two.
The Sierra and East Union girls soccer teams battled for 80 minutes Saturday, and neither team could find the net in a 0-0 tie in Valley Oak League action at the River Islands Sports Complex.
Lancers goalie Cassiday Pearson was tested all day as she posted nine saves with the Timberwolves (8-1-1 VOL, 13-4-2 overall) putting up 17 shots.
“I was just trying to stop the ball,” Pearson said. “I made an awkward save or two.
“It was a tough game. We played really hard and we had really good defense with Mackenzie Weber and Kaylee Hutzler. We all played good.”
East Union (1-4-2, 6-6-2) posted just two shots on goal and seven total shots.
“Obviously, we will take the tie,” Lancers coach Jason Silva said. “Any time you can run with the best teams like we have throughout the course of the season you can see we are getting better and better and stronger and stronger.
“We have played the best teams and now it is about trying to elevate and get to the next level. We are super young and I am proud of the girls. We will take the tie and now move on and take care of business.”
One of the reasons that East Union’s shot quantity was limited was the stellar pressure applied by the Sierra back line with Lindsey Rose playing center defense.
“We just marked up, we did what we were supposed to do,” Rose said. “We just settled the ball from the back to carry it up and carry the ball through.”
Timberwolves coach Manuel Pires gave a lot of credit to Pearson.
“We took so many shots,” Pires said. “But their goalie made some great saves. We had the ball bounce off the post but we couldn’t get the ball back in. We had a lot of opportunities, but you have to give it to East Union. They did a good job of taking the space away from us, especially in the back line, they didn’t give us a lot of chances to execute the plays we like.
“These teams play us, and they come prepared to shut us down and focus on shutting down Jocelin (Roa). But we have 11 players on the field, not just her, so we have to learn from these games and be prepared for the next game.”
The Lancers travel to Tracy today to face Kimball at 5:45 p.m. and Thursday afternoon at 5 East Union hosts Sierra.
