Pali Blues Soccer Returns Home in Style

It had been 25 days since the Pali Blues women's soccer team had taken the field for a home game at Stadium by the Sea and the home crowd inspired it to play one of its best games of the season.

The Blues dominated from start to finish Thursday, limiting the Colorado Force to two shots on their way to a 2-0 victory

“We played our style, we possessed the ball and we dictated the match for 90 minutes,” Pali Blues Coach Jacob Tudela said afterwards. “We didn’t let the Force take us out of our element until maybe the last 15 minutes. Our defenders responded really well from the away trip where we conceded goals."

Two minutes into the match, Sasha Andrews got her head on a corner kick taken by Shawna Gordon, but it went off a Colorado defender. The ball fell in front of Anisa Guajardo, who did her best to keep her balance, but volleyed the ball just over the net.

The Blues (6-1-4) had another chance to take the lead in the 12th minute when Tiffany McCarty ran on to a long ball up the field and shot from inside the penalty area, but it went over the crossbar.

Four minutes later, Pali came close to scoring again when Jessica Price was called on to take a throw-in from 15 yards out and placed it inside the six-yard box. Mariah Nogueira was able to head the ball but it sailed off target.

In the 20th minute, Guajardo broke in alone on Force goalkeeper Kirstin Salminen, who got her hand on the ball to deflect it out of bounds for a corner kick. Colorado (1-6-1) played Pali to a scoreless draw in their first meeting June 9.

In the 33rd minute, the Blues had two consecutive corner kicks, scoring on the second attempt when captain Christie Shaner headed in a cross from Shawna Gordon to give Pali a 1-0 lead.

“Shawna played a great ball in," Shaner said. "There was someone in front of me and I called them off. I made contact with the ball and shot on target. Shooting on target is half the battle and thankfully it went in.”

The Blues doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when Gordon made something out of nothing, following a throw-in from Price. The ball was loose in the area after a poor attempt at goal and a bad clearance. Gordon pounced on it to blast a shot past Salminen.

In the 89th minute, Alex Cousins almost cut Pali’s lead in half when she found space on the right side of the field. She unleashed a shot that went just wide of the goal. The final whistle blew and with that Pali moved to within one point of second-place Santa Clarita (7-0-2) in the W-League's Western Conference standings.

"The awesome stat is that we didn’t allow a shot on target and only allowed two off target," Tudela added. "It was a good three points and a well-deserved win for the girls.”

The Pali Blues will play their final home game of the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. at Palisades High School. Following their match will be PDL’s LA Blues 23 men's team at 4 p.m.

For tickets, visit www.bluessoccerclub.com or call 310-264-4649.