Lady Apaches dominate Florence

GONZALES — The Lady Apaches found themselves on the winning side of the column as they blasted past Florence with a 7-0 victory. The key word was “aggressive” for head coach Jenna Philips with Gonzales playing most of the game in the front half of the field.

“I did see a lot more aggression and a lot more spacing in our formation,” Philips acknowledged. “We worked on that in our tournament the previous week in San Marcos. We played a lot tougher schools which I think helped us with our aggression to get tougher and get better. We came out here and that was our goal, to start out and just be aggressive, winning the ball and being first to the ball. I think we accomplished that really well today.”

The opening score came in the 4th minute when Seioly Villegas chipped a shot to the right of the net, getting the inside corner for a goal.

Jordan Maldonado added another in the 12th minute while an Ashlynn Tatsch 24th minute goal would be the Lady Apaches final of the half to go up 3-0.

Fernanda Velazquez, itching for a goal, finally got through in the second half when she drilled a kick from outside the 18-yard box to put Gonzales up 5-0.

“She did really well today,” Philips said. “She’s excited about getting that goal because she’s’ been trying so hard to get that goal and I’m glad it went in for her.”

Velazquez added two more goals that night to get her the hat trick. All three of her goals came from outside the box.

“We needed to be more aggressive on taking shots from the 18-yard box instead of trying to dribble in so much and they accomplished that today,” Phillips said. “They took a lot of shots past the 18-yard box which was good for us, we need that, we need that confidence booster. I think they really showed what they could actually do if they try.”

The back four was tested late in the first half and later in the second half, but the Lady Apaches were able to keep the clean sheet. Philips mentioned the foursome “communicated with each other very well,” and that the team “saw the field really well.”

With the 7-0 victory, Philips hopes this confidence booster will lead to more success during the final games of non-district. Despite the win, she knows that there are still a few key things to clean up, including some fundamental issues on the field.

“We need to work on our first touch a little more,” Phillips explained. “Just gathering it up a little easier, not panicking. Sometimes we panic a little bit. They did better about controlling it better today. The big thing for us is always control. Just because we are just three years old, we got to get those fundamentals down so that’s our biggest thing.”

Velazquez was the goal leader with three goals, Maldonado had two while Villegas and Tatsch had one each.

Gonzales takes on Beeville next on the road, with kickoff set at 7 p.m.