Varsity girls soccer defeats Diamond Bar High school

Bruce Nguyen, Staff writer
February 6, 2023

Varsity girls soccer gets revenge after two losses last year against their rival school Diamond Bar high school Wednesday, January 1. Making their total league score 5 wins to 1 loss.

Walnut started the game with a noticeable determination to win, causing Diamond Bar to panic, as Walnut held the ball on their side of the field for most of the first half of the game. One of the key players during this time was center midfielder senior

Masyn Ramos, who was able to keep the ball on Diamond Bar’s side of the field.

“It always feels good to help my team, keep the ball in [Diamond Bar’s] half and not have to worry about them scoring,” Ramos said. “When I was in the middle of the field and I had a really good passing session, I just [knew] that we were the stronger team.”

Thanks to the confidence that the girls built up, they were able to score their first goal with forward striker sophomore Vianna Alverez taking the shot. Unfortunately, after Walnut’s first goal and near the end of the first half, Diamond Car crosses the ball toward the goal and scores. The score at halftime was 1-1. 

“[When Diamond Bar] tied the game the morale of the girls went down, so we had a little chat in the locker room,” head coach Jose Alcaraz said. “[During this time] the girls went up, talked to each other and they brought each other’s [morale] up [for the] game.”

Moving into the second half, Walnut found a new stride and battled for the ball against Diamond Bar. As both teams fought, center defensive midfielder senior Maya Cruz found an opportunity and her teammates used it to the fullest, scoring Walnut’s second goal.

“When I scored the last goal, which put us in the lead against them. I felt really good and confident in ourselves,” Cruz said. “I was honestly really proud that the attacking and defending [that] we did together worked out [well] so it felt really good.”

With Walnut now in the lead, their only goal was to focus on defense, and even Cruz dropped back to help. As the game intensity rose, Diamond Bar found an opening to shoot and took it,nly to be blocked by goalkeeper junior Talisa Perez, saving the ball with a horizontal jump. After the save, Walnut kept a strong defense and the game ended with Walnut winning 2-1.

“I felt good [during the save], but after that we got down to business because we still had time on the clock,” Perez said. “As a player and as a team we got to work hard on those last few minutes, [which felt] amazing. I think we did so well [and] worked so hard as a team [to get] the win.”