Cleveland’s Ashley Valencia (2) attempts to steal the ball from Soddy-Daisy’s Jessica Lyons (17) Tuesday at the Soddy-Daisy soccer field.Sam DeBien said Tuesday evening that the Cleveland soccer Lady Raiders were a “second-half team.” But that night they were more like a “final 15-minute team.”
Cleveland scored two goals in the final 11 minutes of play for a monumental 2-1 District 5-AAA victory at Soddy-Daisy. That snapped a six-year winless streak against the Lady Trojans, who had won the previous 12 meetings.
DeBien and Sohara Perez combined for the two goals, with Perez scoring in the 69th minute and the sophomore netting the ultimate game-winner in the 76th as Cleveland (10-5, 4-2) won its fifth consecutive match.
“Our first half wasn’t good, but we’ve been a second-half team all year,” DeBien said. “We hadn’t beat Soddy-Daisy since 2007, and although I hadn’t been around to experience a lot of that, it was pretty cool because I know that tonight was big for some of our older girls. We’re starting to play better and things are starting to go well for us.”
Soddy-Daisy (6-7-1, 2-3) took a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute on a goal by Miranda Smith. The Lady Trojans found some early gaps in the defense and were able to continually create opportunities. They had some early shots at increasing their lead, but saves by Cleveland keeper Jenna Scoggins kept the Lady Raiders close.