BUTTE VALLEY — For the second straight year, the Butte College women’s soccer team played host to the Sierra College Wolverines. And for the second straight year the Roadrunners lost 4-0.
But this year, coach Mike O’Malley felt better about the outcome against the now 5-0 Wolverines.
“I am pleased, we played a lot of players,” he said. “And we can make some evaluations from there.”
O’Malley said that he thought his Roadrunners, now 1-1, dominated in the first 13 minutes of the game. That was until Sierra’s Grace Vargas scored on a feed from Christina Kanellou.
“That one-on-one goal was beautiful from (Vargas), ” O’Malley said. “We kind of dropped our heads a little bit after that.”
Seemingly before the Roadrunners could re-boot themselves, a shot volleyed at Butte defender Vehilah Rothenberger was ruled a handball in the box.
Rothenberger’s arm was across her chest to protect herself from the ball, but it was ruled a handball, a call that O’Malley termed as soft. Vargas converted the penalty kick to give the visitors a 2-0 lead just less than 15 minutes into the game.
“That affected the way our girls played,” he said. “Our girls wigged out a little bit after that.”
The Wolverines extended the lead to 3-0 on a goal from Samantha Craig in the 28th minute. That was the score at the half, and O’Malley then tried to rally the troops.
“We gathered at halftime and we talked about making it a competitive game in the second half,” O’Malley said. “And I think we did that.”
The only second-half goal came from Alexis Day after Butte goalkeeper Alisom Bergin made a save off a Wolverine shot. But the ball found space in the box and Day was able to lift it over Bergin’s head for a goal.
Butte didn’t mount much of a consistent offense all day. The Roadrunners mustered nine shots, four by Lexi Stahl. The only shot on goal by Butte came off the foot of Lily Jones.
O’Malley said the buildup from the back to the front was lacking.
“We have to figure out a better way of getting the ball through our midfield to our forwards,” he said. “Catherine (Buckner) and Lexi Stahl are having to work way too hard to get the ball. But they both played well.”
Even thought the Roadrunners surrendered four goals, he did like the work of the defense.
“I thought our center backs did pretty good,” he said. “I thought Kate (Gnesda) and Brooke (Parks) played well.”
Butte is at 0-2 Napa on Tuesday and will host Yuba (1-1-1) next Friday. Both games start at 2 p.m.
