COLORADO SPRINGS – A little spark can go a long way. And that’s exactly what the Widefield girls soccer team found out Saturday at Garry Berry Stadium.
The Gladiators have struggled all season and just felt like they needed a little spark that could ignite some momentum. Freshman Autumn Ibarra lit that spark with two early goals and the Glads rolled to a 10-0 win over Mitchell.
And it was a significant win for what the team is hoping to accomplish the rest of the season.
“This team has traditionally struggled,” coach Justin Van Horn said. “Getting any bit of momentum is big for us. Especially moving into the middle of the season. We don’t play league teams until the end so we need every bit of traction we can get.”
Saturday’s win was a good first step. It gave the Gladiators (2-2 overall) their second straight win of the season which can change an entire outlook for the roster.
“It boosts everything,” Ibarra said. “We’ll go into our next games thinking we can win so games like these are great for everything that happens the rest of the season.”
Ibarra finished the day with five goals. Lily Eutsler had three and Jacqueline Ruiz had one. The Marauders also let in an own goal.
Widefield didn’t really seize complete control of the game until later in the first half. Although it jumped out to a fast lead, Mitchell was able to put together some chances. Sol Vidal had a couple of early looks at the Widefield net, but none of them went for goals.
Like Widefield, Mitchell has seen some early struggles this season and finding a way to both rally as a unit and take advantage of situations that can generate momentum are key factors to the development of the team.
“Right now we’re trying to stress commitment and showing up for each other and being there for each other,” coach Adam Palmer said. “As a whole, you have to finish a couple of early chances just to boost that confidence and make things a little bit easier.”
That mentality bears a little more weight when seeing how it boosted the Gladiators after they walked off the field with the win.
The shift in body language came after the early goals in which the Widefield players started believing more in their ability and their game plan on the field.
Once that confidence hit, it was tough to slow down.
“At the beginning of the season it looked rough,” Ibarra said. “We might win a game, but never mercy team. It was great to get that early lead and have the team actually do this.”
Widefield will try and maintain that momentum when it hosts the Colorado Springs School on Monday. Mitchell will head to Atlas Prep on Tuesday for it next game.