by Niki Cunningham
Sports Editor
e-reporter
Bob Nielsen
The U-14 Lassen Arsenal hosted the Redding Lightning at Riverside Park on Saturday. Having won the kick-off from the coin toss, Lassen began pressuring immediately. For the first 15 minutes, Lassen controlled the pace of the game. Looking for an opening, the Arsenal offense tried several crosses. The Redding defense conceded several corner kicks, but was able to clear Lassen’s attempts from the box. After one such clearance, halfback Emma Newton made a nice entry pass into the forwards, where Kristen Zamora unselfishly sent the ball on to a wide-open Shannon Ferrall. Ferrall wasted not time finding the back of the net for Lassen’s first goal.
Redding came back, and for the next 20 minutes, moved the ball at will throughout the midfield. The back four defenders, led by Lexie Stevens and Amber Jackson, held strong and kept the offense out of scoring range. The Redding girls also tried sending the ball over the defense, but goalkeeper Brittney Patton came out to the edge of her box to regain possession. Lassen came up with a couple of counter-attacks, but the excellent goaltending by Redding kept the score close at 1-0. At the end of the first half, Redding was on the verge of equalizing the game, but missed on a couple of opportunities gained from corner kicks and poor clearances.
The Lassen defense was the story of the second half, the Redding offense near midfield, which made for many Lassen opportunities on goal. Zamora displayed some amazing footwork, winding her way through most of the defense and then passing to an open forward. Notwithstanding multiple dangerous balls, Lassen just couldn’t find the back of the net, until Martin found herself on the end of another Zamora through-ball, dribbled passed a defender, and was tripped from behind as she struggled to get a shot off. Martin took the one-on-one penalty kick from twelve yards out, and hit the lower left hand corner to bring the score to 2-0. With that, Lassen Arsenal came away with their fourth straight shutout. The Arsenal defense and goalies have only allowed one goal all season, with the offense scoring 16. They play a very talented and offensively minded Anderson team next Saturday at 10:00 am at Anderson River Park.
