Playing in the third annual Anna Alioto Memorial Classic, the RBHS girls soccer team improved to 9-10 on the season, defeating cross-town rival Hickman, 3-1.
In a game honoring a former Columbia soccer player who drowned in 2012, the Bruins seemed to be inspired by that memory. Scoring three goals in just three minutes, the Bruins clinched the win just before halftime. Head coach Gary Drewing said that the team put on one of their best showings of the entire season.
“After we settled into the game I thought we competed very well as a team,” Drewing said. “I felt our backs had a great shape and played very well against a quality opponent. We had a nice 15 minute run on offense that was one of our best outputs to date.”
Senior forward Katie Cook said that the team improved greatly from their past games, a series of seven losses that was just broken two days ago against Smith-Cotton, where they won 3-2. The Bruins had struggled to find momentum in their games, especially with each game being played in a tournament, where little time is given for rest. Cook said that the team managed to put more pressure on their opponents and moved the ball around well.
“We connected a lot of passes in the 10 minutes before scoring three in a row,” Cook said. “It’s hard to keep pressure on a team connecting passes and a team gets tired from chasing.”
Junior defender Ronni Farid said that the next step for the team is staying strong through districts. Farid said that the team has greatly improved on areas that it had previously struggled in and is honing its skills for a postseason run.
“We can always work on communication, but today I think we did that amazingly,” Farid said. “I’m looking forward to building as a successful team and becoming closer with this group of girls.”
By Derek Wang
Photo by Suryanshi Rawat