Gonzales drops first district loss to aggressive Lady Ducks

GONZALES — Usually the aggressors, the Lady Apaches found themselves in their defensive side of the field far too much as the Taylor Lady Ducks took down Gonzales 2-0 in the contest.

Despite a tough back four and a good outing by Lady Apache goalkeeper Alyson Solis, Taylor took advantage of their goal opportunities and finally got one in the back of the net in the 24th minute.

“We weren’t winning any balls in the middle [of the field]. That was our weak spot,” head coach Jenna Philips said after the game. “We weren’t playing as aggressive as we normally play. Taylor ended up winning more balls than we did, staying on the offensive side more than defensive side. They had more opportunities to score than we did and they broke our defense down.”

The Lady Apaches didn’t even get a shot on goal until after Taylor’s second goal in the 34th minute. Right after going down 2-0, Gonzales got their first shot as Alaisa Chavez found Yasmin Gallegos who took a shot that was saved. A few minutes later, the Lady Apaches again went on the attack, only this time Taylor countered as they crossed it into the box where Solis grabbed it before the half ended.

Even with all the attacks Taylor had, Philips was pleased with her back four’s defensive efforts, despite the two goals scored.

“[The] back four they do communicate well with each other,” she explained. “They do protect the house. They’re aggressive, they don’t want anything penetrating that and they do sacrifice their body a lot to keep that ball out of there.”

“My goalie [Solis] is pretty sound,” Philips continued. “She can see the field, she can anticipate what’s going to happen so that helps having her as my goalie in the back.”

The start of the second half proved to be much different as the Lady Apaches were the aggressors. Even then, Taylor’s defense was ready as they held on and passed it up to their forwards for counter attacks.

“We changed up our formation a little bit which kind of helped our midfield and kind of help them give them that extra body, that extra person in there to kind of get more aggressive,” Philips said. “One thing we need to work on is sticking to the sidelines instead of trying to dribble up the middle.”

The Lady Apaches held on to the two-goal deficit but were unfortunately shut out as they eventually lost 2-0.

Tonight they take on a team they played last year in the La Grange Lady Leopards.

“Big rival for the kids,” Philips said, “I believe we lost by two so now it’s kind of like we want revenge, we want to redeem ourselves, get it back. We got potential, we can do it. We just got to buckle down and get focused again.”

The game is at La Grange tonight with kickoff set at 5:30 p.m.