A dominant first-half performance turned into a disappointing tie for Grand Street.
The Wolves saw a three-goal, first-half lead quickly slip into a 3–3 draw against visiting Telecommunications in a battle of unbeaten teams in Brooklyn AAA girls soccer last Thursday afternoon. Grand Street coach Andre Lamy felt his team let its guard down after racking up such a big lead.
“We got comfortable and relaxed in the second half,” he said. “We beat ourselves by making errant mistakes.”
The Wolves had total control of the game in the first half, as Jocelyn Aguilar twice put the ball in the back of the net. Jazmin Gonzalez scored the third goal to give her team a commanding 3–0 lead.
Grand Street’s advantage started slimming down when its defense got caught napping by Yellow Jackets star Melissa Gonzalez, who broke right through the Wolves defense and scored her first of three goals. Not too long after that, a miscommunication on defense hurt the Wolves and they paid for it when Gonzalez scored the second goal to make it 3–2.
Late in the second half, Grand Street made a crucial mistake. Telecom was given a penalty kick because of a handball in the box by Grand Street. Gonzalez didn’t miss the opportunity and put the ball in the back of the net to tie the score at 3–3.
Even though Grand Street didn’t lose the game, the tie hurt the team’s confidence, the coach said. The Wolves were playing with just 14 available players because of injuries and leading scorer Natalie Salazar, who was sick all week, was held out of the contest. Lamy feels things will get better when she returns.
“The only thing we need for the next match up is to have my full team healthy and Natalie Salazar present,” Lamy said. “We should win the game.”
