Terra Nova girls’ soccer takes over PAL Ocean lead

Now that the Tigers were playing 11-on-10, surely the game would open up and they would win going away, right?

Instead, Downing agonized over the final 40 minutes as the Warriors stayed in the game and while there was no real dangerous chances, Downing has been around soccer long enough to know what happens when a team lets an opponent stick around.

The Tigers had a number of near misses in the closing minutes, but instead escaped South City as that early goal was enough in a 1-0 Terra Nova victory Thursday in South San Francisco.

“It was nerve wracking (in the second half),” Downing said. “It was terrible. We got the win, but we didn’t play our best game.”

The game was between a pair of 4-0 teams in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Ocean Division and the win give the Tigers sole possession of first place with four games remaining. The good news is, Terra Nova (5-0 PAL Ocean, 15 points; 9-4-1 overall) doesn’t have to face South City (4-1, 12 points) again during the regular season.

While the Warriors didn’t generate a whole lot offensively, they certainly made their presence felt with an aggressive, physical style of play, which Downing believes may have affected his squad.

“We were both 4-0. We knew this would be a physical game,” Downing said. “We got a little off our game with their physicality.”

It was a tale of two halves for Terra Nova. The Tigers spent much of the first half running at the South City defense. Ella Templin was proving especially dangerous — not only with runs at the defense, but also with her passing.

It appeared the Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute when they earned a free kick and center back Laney Wilson sent a ball from 45 yards out into the Warriors’ penalty box. Daniela Guterres head the ball off the bounce over the goalkeeper’s head, but Guterres was ruled offside, wiping away the goal.

Four minutes later, the Tigers got a goal that counted. Again initiated by Wilson off a free kick, she pushed the ball forward before it found Templin. She slotted a perfect through ball into the box, with Lily Farmer and Guterres giving chase with a pair of South City defenders.

And it was Farmer who managed to get a toe on the ball and poke it past the goalkeeper for the what turned out to be the game’s only goal.

While the Tigers spent most of the rest of the first half putting pressure on the South City defense, the Warriors managed to get the Terra Nova back line scrambling a little bit late in the half. The Tigers, instead of clearing the ball out of danger, were trying to build out the back before first-half goalkeeper Juliet Long finally jumping on a loose ball to end the chaos.

But midway through the first half, South City lost a player to a red card. She was initially called for a foul, earning a yellow card. As she was leaving the field, she and a Terra Nova player started trash talking each other.

That drew a yellow card for both players and the second yellow — followed by a red card ejection — for the Warriors player, sending her to the sideline for the rest of the game.

Terra Nova, however, never managed to take advantage. In fact, in the second half, South City had the Tigers playing with the backs to the goal much more than in the first half and instead of seeing Terra Nova pressing forward on the attack, the Tigers were playing backward.

“Our philosophy is to keep control of the ball,” Downing said. “But we passed the ball back too much.”

That included a number of long back passes to second-half goalkeeper Whitney O’Reilly, who handled all the chance with nary a bobble.

“We’re very confident playing the ball back to Whitney,” Downing said. “She has good ball skills and she makes the right decision.”

The Tigers did have some chances to increase their lead with a number of close calls in the second half, with Wilson’s foot at the center of them. Only a sophomore, Wilson showed plenty of poise at her center back spot and when asked to step up into the attack, seamlessly moved forward.

Plus, her right foot is a major weapon on set pieces. She nearly gave the Tigers another goal in the 48th minute, when she put a free kick from 35 yards out on frame, only to be denied when South City goalkeeper Lupe Martinez pawed it off the frame of the goal.

The Tigers earned another free kick in the 78th minute from 30 yards out, with Geneva Chan sending a square pass to Templin, who hammered a shot off the crossbar.

A minute later, Wilson did the same and the Tigers had to settle for the one-goal win.

“Another couple inches down and we have three goals,” Downing said.