The Chabot women's soccer team took a sturdy step forward in a 4-0 win over Marin on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Goalkeeper Abigail Burnell made five saves for the shutout and Marisol Martinez scored twice to highlight the effort.
Adriana Mariscal and Ivania Limon also scored for the Gladiators. Mariscal, Borami Schwartz, Alia Morris and Yvette Sandoval all had assists.
Through the first five games of the season, the Gladiators (2-2-2) were still finding their way.
They opened the season by creating good chances in a scoreless draw with Los Medanos on Aug. 28. Burnell worked the shutout.
Next Chabot bonded on a two-game road trip and overcame an absence of six players in a 2-1 win over Yuba City on Aug. 31, followed by a 3-1 loss at Feather River Sept. 1.
Morris scored the winner against Yuba, her second goal of the match, with a strong run on the ball and a nice finish in the opposite corner of the goal. Schwartz had the assist.
"Overall, it was a well-worth-it bonding trip for the girls, Chabot coach Markus Bathelt says. "My expectation was to at least win one of the two matches."
Against Feather River, Schwartz scored to tie the game 1-1 with a strong shot from distance in the first half. But the home side gradually took control of the game with an organized defense, limiting Chabot's scoring chances. Some controversial offside calls also worked against the Gladiators. Martinez still hit the upper right corner of the crossbar with a precise free kick.
Next, the Gladiators fell 6-1 to a more experienced Diablo Valley squad on Sept. 5 in Hayward. Chabot held tough for the first 25 minutes before things went south. Bathelt described the tough loss as "definitely an eye-opener and pointed to one of our weaknesses which is inexperience of defenders when it comes to fast attacks or high/long balls by our opponents."
But Chabot bounced back with a 1-1 draw at home against Lassen on Sept. 11, including dominating the first half with five or six chances. Unfortunately for the Gladiators, the victory eluded them on an 88th-minute goal by Lassen.
"So, in recent practices we tried to focus on 1-v-1 and 2-v-2 defending and on different attacking patterns with ways of being less predictable and trying to be more assertive and ruthless in front of the other goal," Bathelt says.
The extra work paid off against Marin. Chabot will look to keep the good times rolling at home against Redwoods at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21
CHABOT'S KEY PLAYERS: Goalkeeper Abby Burnell, Marisol Martinez, new defender Yenifer Origel Hernandez; midfielders Yvette Sandoval, Ivania Limon and Borami Schwartz and Melissa Rivera Zavala; and forwards Alia Morris and Adriana Mariscal