April 6th, 11:00AM
Today the Lady Hawks had their fourth Futsal game in the ISSL season 2. The match was heated from the start, and EABH filled the crowd. The girls started the game with high motivation as the Hawks watching chanted and yelled in support.
Balance reigned for the first three minutes: both teams stole and lost the ball in a series of intense disputes. That is until the EABH girls got control over the ball and quickly moved into attack mode. The Huskies’ goalie moved toward the Lady Hawk in possession of the ball in an attempt of early defense, but Laura Calixto (99) was able to go through her and score EABH’s first goal of the match---in under four minutes into the first half.
PASPOA had the ball after the Hawk’s goal and attempted an attack, but before they were even able to approach the Hawks’s goal, Gabi Carvalho (09) stole the ball back and quickly charged at the goal, scoring EABH’s second goal of the game with less than a minute after the previous one.
Not satisfied, Anna Pulga (05) immediately reclaimed control, and the unstoppable Lady Hawks attacked once more. Pulga passed the ball to Calixto, who unfortunately lost space before being able to attempt the goal. The Huskies quickly moved toward EABH’s goal, but thankfully Marina (10) jumped to the Hawks' defense, making sure the ball was no longer anywhere near our goal. The match continued with high energy: the EABH girls gave an amazing performance and the crowd became more and more excited.
Gabi Carvalho took control of the ball once more, passing it to Calixto, who in turn passed it to Pulga. Pulga almost scored again, missing it by mere centimeters. The Lady Hawks did not get discouraged, however, even though the first half was only a few minutes away from its end. The Huskies now had the ball, but with only ten seconds left on the clock, Pulga stole it and almost scored again, unfortunately losing control of the ball near the goal. Gabi Carvalho came to the rescue and retrieved ball possession, but the Huskies's defense was able to block her. The first half ended at 2-0, favorably to the Hawks.
In the second half, the girls entered the court excitedly, looking forward to keeping up the spirits of the first, and Carol Bonato (14) joined the team. The Hawks were now barely giving the Huskies a fighting chance, and in less than seconds since the game resumed, Laura Calixto scored another beautiful goal. Carol Bonato followed, nearly scoring what would have been the fourth of the match.
The Huskies struggled with the Hawks for a few minutes, but the unstoppable Laura Calixto soon took control of the ball, dribbled the PASPOA players, and scored the Hawks’s fourth goal. With another 12 minutes left in the game, coach Cláudio decided to make a series of substitutions, resulting in a team made of Maria Fernanda (more commonly referred to as Mafê) (07), Mariana Lanna (13), Gabi Carvalho, Carol and Annie.
The Huskies, who seemed to have regained their energy, carried out a series of attacks on the Hawks, which were all successfully stopped by the team's defense. With ten minutes left in the game, Mafê defended an attack by throwing herself in the ball’s path. Soon Annie defended another goal, which did not stop the Huskies from continuing to attempt to score. Mafê prevented another attempted score in the same way as she had not long ago. Finally, the Lady Hawks regained possession of the ball, and Carol dribbled multiple players before nearly scoring.
Helena Dias (88) and Bianca Birman (11) substituted Gabi and Mafê. The game resumed normally and despite not having the starters on the court EABH continued to play from equal to equal. After much anticipation and the younger athletes valiantly holding down the fort, the whistle blows announcing the end of the game, with the amazing victory for EABH of 4-0.
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