FALLON - On one end of the field, Galena's varsity girls' soccer coach Ron Jones felt his league-leading team was in a "game" for 80 minutes.
At the opposite side, Fallon coach Lance Lattin said his girls played one of their best defensive matches of the year Tuesday despite losing to Galena 3-0 at the Ed Arciniega Athletic Complex.
Fallon drops to 1-14-2 overall, 0-9 in league. Galena improves to 10-0-1 and 8-0-1 in league play, one-half game ahead of second place Reed.
"We played better (against Galena) than we did before," Lattin said, referring to Galena's 4-0 win 10 days ago. "The girls were trying hard and going after the ball. We weren't' holding back."
With less than two minutes into the match, Galena's offense aggressively attacked the goalie's box and finally scored on Libby Walker's kick which scooted to the left of Fallon's Mallorie Getto.
Fallon's defense stiffened and began winning more balls to keep the Grizzlies scoreless.
"Fallon pushed harder and was very aggressive to the ball," Jones said. "This was a good, tough game."
Fallon transitioned better from offense to defense, and for the first 20 minutes of the second half, both teams played fairly evenly.
Fallon's Shayla Hubbard and Zoe Call attacked the ball aggressively for most of the match, while Crystal Cervantes worked the outside.
Within a four-minute span, though, Galena broke open the close High Desert League match with an energy spurt and scored two goals.
Walker took a cross from Teyra Rapp and kicked the ball off Getto's fingertips for a 2-0 lead at the 61-minute mark. Four minutes later, Jess Dourghty booted the ball with her left foot, and the ball arced and curved high behind Getto.
Jones said his defense helped Galena out of tight positions, but he credits Fallon for taking his team out of their game plan.
Galena took 17 shots on goal compared to Fallon's four.
