LYNN — The Tech girls soccer team hasn’t won a lot of games the past few seasons. Monday night’s contest against Chelsea at Manning Field, a 5-1 loss for the Tigers, dropped Tech to 0-4 this season.
There were bright spots for the Tigers, however, as a pair of Tech players gave the team strong performances in Monday night’s game.
Tigers goalie Candida Bolanos, a freshman, stepped into the starting role and finished the game with 11 saves.
“She’s short, but she’s willing to do a job that a lot of people don’t want to do,” Tech coach Bruce Diver said of his netminder. “That’s really good. She’s just a real aggressive girl. I think she’s going to do just fine. It’s a hard position but she’s willing to do it.”
Carolina Bonilla scored the lone goal of the night for Tech, the team’s first of the season.
Last season, Diver took over the helm of the Tigers program and found himself teaching the fundamentals of soccer to a group of inexperienced players. It’ll be a similar experience for Diver and Tech this fall.
As long as the team improves on a daily basis, Diver said, the Tigers will be fine moving forward.
“We’re looking to improve each day,” Diver said. “For me, it’s just about training them. I have some good raw talent. I really hope we can work on that.”
The first half of Monday night’s game was tightly contested. The Red Devils offense moved the ball at will and fired away seven shots at Bolanos’ direction but the freshman made all the saves.
Chelsea finally broke through for a goal in the 25th minute, taking a 1-0 lead. The Red Devils added another goal in the 33rd minute to carry a 2-0 edge at halftime.
“The girls are still getting in shape and they’re still learning,” Diver said. “They’re all new. I only have four seniors and I’m utilizing them, and exhausting them right now. I’m just trying to teach them and this year we’re working mostly on defense.”
Chelsea padded its lead to 5-0 with a quick three-goal spurt in the second half. Tech finally found its way onto the scoreboard when Bonilla put the ball in net with five minutes remaining, but the Red Devils walked away with the 5-1 win.
“I think by the time most of these girls are seniors, we’ll have a really good team here,” Diver said. “We could even have a good team next season, it all depends on who stays and who improves.”