At halftime of Friday’s game against University, Palisades High boys soccer coach Dave Suarez told his players the game was right there for the taking.
In the second half the Dolphins proceeded to go and take it, breaking a scoreless deadlock with three goals in the last 40 minutes at Daniel Webster Middle School to move into sole possession of first place in the Western League standings.
“That’s the best half we’ve played since the second half of the Huntington Park game in the [City] playoffs last year,” Suarez said. “It was a big win but we still have LACES left, Fairfax is always tough at their place and we also have Hamilton on their home field. We’re not out of the woods.”
The first half was fairly even, but Palisades (5-1 overall, 5-0 in league) had three free kicks deep in the Wildcats’ end in the last five minutes and couldn’t convert. Despite the loss of Barron Chavez, who left with an injury less than 10 minutes into the game and didn’t return, the Dolphins’ perseverance paid off.
Seven minutes into the second half Dash Dennerline scored off a throw-in and just like that Palisades had a 1-0 lead.
“We’re really playing as a team right now,” Dennerline said. “We had to get adjusted to the speed in the first half. Bill [Batbayar] touched it and I volleyed it inside the box.”
In the 55th minute Joob Sanchez was tripped in the box and Chad Johnson converted the penalty kick to put the Dolphins up 2-0.
“I told my team that I was going to take it,” Johnson said after drilling the ball into the lower left corner. “I try to make the goalie make a move first. We wanted it more than them and we worked harder than them.”
Co-captain David Grinsfelder provided the exclamation point in the 77th minute when he pushed up from the back line and found the lower left corner to cap the scoring.
— Steve Galluzzo
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