BCHS cruises past South Gate in SoCal Regional girls soccer opener

Mar. 2—By any objective metric, the Bakersfield Christian girls soccer team put the game away pretty early Tuesday evening in a 6-0 win. It took just eight and a half minutes for Sydney Carrieri to open the scoring by converting a give-and-go, then another 10 for Abby Buys to dispossess Andrea Ceja, cut outside to the left and fire one across her body into the net.

By halftime the Eagles were up 3-0 on the South Gate Rams, and they doubled their tally pretty quickly in the second period. But head coach Derik Watson would like to see his team become even more dominant.

"It wasn't as fast as we'd like to have started, honestly," Watson said. "But we have some girls who were hungry today, I think, and that helps."

Hungriest of all on the offensive end was the junior Buys, who opened her account in the 19th minute but struck again before halftime and then from point-blank range immediately after. She completed her hat trick just days after scoring the second-overtime winner in the Central Section championship at Nipomo.

After Carrieri led the offense early, with one good opportunity going wide of the post five minutes in and then another finding the back of the net, Buys shouldered the load, before Mikaela Bidart and Ella Wilson added bonus goals late for No. 4 BCHS (20-7-2) for a 6-0 victory.

South Gate (17-15-3), the sixth-place team in the Eastern division of the Los Angeles City Section, struggled to get the ball out of its own half, with the Eagles intercepting weak clearances and peppering the goal with shots on target. In this way, Watson said, BCHS succeeded.

"Win the midfield, keep the pressure on them upfront," he said, "and I think we did that."

On occasion, when the Rams did get into good position on a counter-attack, their passing wasn't good enough to lead to goal-scoring opportunities. Down 2-0 halfway through the first half, Katherine Chica and Yoseline Panduro had an opportunity for some interplay on the left wing with the Eagles struggling to get back on defense, but they mishandled the passing and gave up possession.

The Rams forced their first real save out of Ashley Herman in the 39th minute, when Brianna Bernal lofted in a cross for Lauren Villalta, but Herman beat the striker to the ball.

By the time Evelyn Martin got a couple of good opportunities for South Gate — one from long range that bounced awkwardly off Herman before rolling out past the right post, another off-balance following a free kick — the Rams already trailed 5-0, then 6-0. Bidart bounced a shot off the goalie and got her own rebound for the score in the 46th minute, then Ella Wilson, a threat with her long throw-ins all day, split a pair of defenders and launched one high into the net.

Martin's quality opportunities — neither of which resulted in a goal — came at a time when Watson started to put in some reserves. He said he recalled his own high school career, in which he never got to a state playoff game, and wanted to give every Eagle a chance to take the field Tuesday night.

"To me, it's important to me that they can talk to their kids and family members about that as they grow older," he said, "because I would have liked to have had that opportunity when I was a kid."

The win sets up a date at No. 1 Lakewood-Saint Joseph Thursday. The Jesters had a dominant victory of their own Tuesday afternoon, beating San Diego-Chula Vista Learning Community Charter 8-0.

"This is all just extra for us," Watson said. "Our goal was to win valley. I put it to them, 'Wanna go try and win state?' And they all said yes."

It was a celebratory night all around at BCHS. Shortly after the conclusion of the girls soccer game, the boys basketball team, just across the way in the gym, advanced past Santa Fe Springs-St. Paul 56-54 in the most dramatic fashion possible: a game-winning contested 3-pointer from Erick Chaney, after the Eagles faced narrow deficits all game.

With Rancho Cucamonga upsetting Visalia-Mt. Whitney, the Eagles boys basketball team will get to host a D-II second-round game Thursday night, while girls soccer travels to Saint Joseph.