The Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs swept Charles City in a soccer doubleheader Thursday night during the “Kick the Stigma” event, with the girls earning a 3-1 victory and the boys outscoring the Comets 7-1.
The Bulldog girls were paced offensively by Sofia Gutierrez, who opened the scoring in the first half with two goals. The Bulldogs held the Comets scoreless until about three minutes into the second half. With about 60 minutes played, Gutierrez found the net for a third time, sealing the Bulldogs’ victory.
Gutierrez says she capitalized on open looks and quick touches to complete the hat trick.
“I was just open, so I just made those three touches,” Gutierrez says. “The third one was by a throw-in, and I just got the touch. I didn’t think I was gonna score it, so I just made the touch. And the rest two — well, the other one was above the goalie’s head. I didn’t really think I was gonna make that one. The first one, I just got a touch right there. I was open. Boom — made a shot, made it in.”
In the boys match, Hunter Rieken opened the scoring, and Oziel Trevino added a goal with about 10 minutes left in the first half. Charles City answered with a late first-half goal to make it 2-1 at halftime.
With about 13 minutes remaining, the Bulldogs went on a scoring surge that began when Rieken scored his second goal of the night. Adan Rodriguez added two goals, Christian Zavala scored once, and Jordan Sosa-Martinez also found the net.
Head Coach Danielle Arana says the team has been working through some struggles this week but showed improvement as the match progressed.
“We’ve struggled a little bit this week,” Arana says. “There’s teams that we could have competed against a little harder. So coming out with, you know, our Monday and Tuesday’s game and then coming into this one and just kind of struggling to get our momentum going. We’ve been talking about it. So it was a little disheartening to watch it. However, we pulled it together the second half and I think that they played well.”
The Bulldogs return to action next week, with the girls on the road against Wright County on Monday and the boys hosting Wright County on Tuesday.
