STURGIS — The Sturgis girls soccer team has put together a nice stretch here the last week-plus.
The Trojans have notched victories in three of their last four matches on the pitch, including a home win over visiting Paw Paw on Monday, April 27. The teams played in relatively windy and wet conditions, which at times made it difficult, but Sturgis was able to make a couple of first goals in the first half stand up before pulling away with a 4-0 win over the Red Wolves.
“I thought we played really well today. I think the biggest thing for us right now is the girls are buying in, which can be tough,” Sturgis coach Jose Arias said. “Certainly kudos to the girls, if they would not have bought in to what we are doing as coaches, I don’t tihnk we’d be having the success.”
Sturgis was able to control the pace of play in the match. It was a big part of the team’s success on Monday night.
Once the first ball went into the back of the net, Sturgis appeared to play with more confidence.
“Every game, we have to go in as the underdogs, sometimes the ball might roll our way,” Arias said.
Sturgis is now 6-4 on the season. The upperclassmen on the team went though a few tough years to begin their careers, Arias said, but now the Trojans are playing well at the right time. Victories in this winning stretch have seen the orange and black beat Bangor (8-0) and Niles (5-1) in addition to Monday’s victory.
Freshman Mitchy Flores got Sturgis on the board a little more than halfway through the opening half. She booted a ball on target, it skipped on the wet surface and made its way into the net past the Paw Paw goal keeper at the 24:15 mark to put the Trojans ahead.
Flores earned a penalty kick a handful of minutes later, but the Trojans were unable to capitalize with a goal. Then, later in the opening stanza, Flores was able to find the back of the net for the second Sturgis goal.
The Trojans led 2-0 at halftime. It was more than enough. But in the second half, the Trojans equaled their offensive output with two more goals.
The first came from freshman Rubi Anicua with 16 minutes left in the match. Not too long after, sophomore Carolina Garcia scored to push the lead out to 4-0.
Arias said getting on the board early in the first half helped with the team’s confidence.
“If we win those battles at the beginning of the match, it will certainly help us,” he said. “If we can make those goals early, we put ourselves in a better position.”
Sturgis has some tough matches coming up against conference leaders in Plainwell and Otsego in the next week. Arias reminded his team after Monday’s match to keep their heads up and continue to bring the effort.
“I was just reminding the girls that we have goals for the season and we need to keep working,” he said. “Right now, we are working hard as a team and that’s great to see. We have to keep pushing forward.”
Sturgis travels to Plainwell on Wednesday.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Sturgis soccer beats Paw Paw, pieces together nice stretch
Reporting by Brandon Watson, Sturgis Journal / Sturgis Journal
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