Turning the tide

Joseph Park, Sports Editor

The hot streak continues as the Diamond Bar girls soccer team collapsed Rowland’s defense in the second half to win the game 4-0 and up its league record to 4-1. Although DB’s offense did not look promising in the first half, the second half took a turn for the better.

The first half did not go so well. Passes were not connecting and the Raiders were beating DB to all the loose balls. However, one thing that kept the Lady Brahmas alive in the first half was their defense, which has been a strong point so far in the season. Something needed a change and after enduring a terrible first half, DB received a much needed pep talk from its head coach Matthew Brummett. Whatever Brummett said in his half time huddle, it worked.

Right from the first minute of the second half, senior captain Leah Kolek scored a free kick from about 30 yards right over the goalie’s head. Things started to snowball from there. DB was motivated and corrected its mistakes from the first half.

“Overall the game was a tale of two halves. In the first half we played poorly, we had a slow start and we were not up to our standards. In the second half we played great, we figured it out and started to put forth a better effort. I was proud of the team for the way they responded to a bad first half,” Brummett said.

DB received a corner kick and made the most of it, as the ball landed in the box where senior Kimmy Rubinstein scored the second goal. The score was now 2-0 and things just got better. Freshman Denaley Donahue crossed the ball right to sophomore Hayley Everhart to score the third goal of the match. Alongside an excellent defensive performance, DB was pretty much unstoppable as its offense started to click. Freshman Kayla Pak passed a through ball to junior Mia Truggerro to score the fourth and final goal of the game.

Not only was the offense a big contributing factor to the game, but also the leadership of the seniors and captains who motivated and pushed the team to its full potential. “The key factor was that our leadership really stepped up in the second half. Our captain Leah Kolek scored a goal to kind of pick us up,” Brummett said.

The Lady Brahmas’ future looks very promising after winning this match. “We hope to put forth a great effort and compete for a league title. It’s going to be tough. My expectations is to be in the thick of it when it comes to the league title and be there and hopefully be the champions,” Brummett said.