BY LANDON NEGRI
MENIFEE — The Menifee Paloma Valley girls soccer team plays with an aggressive, attacking style, but for 40 minutes Thursday, it seemed like it was in retreat. Luckily for the Wildcats, they had another 40 minutes to get it right.Senior forward Amanda Gomez booted a perfectly placed goal from about 18 yards out in the 46th minute, and the Wildcats edged visiting Hemet, 1-0, in a nonleague match. Paloma Valley (8-2-2), ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section Division 5, outlasted the Bulldogs (7-5-2), returning section quarterfinalists, with the win. All nine of the Wildcats’ shots on goal came in the second half. “We just tried to come out attacking more (after halftime),” Paloma coach Marie Dillon said. “I think we had, like, two shots (overall) in the entire first half.” But the Wildcats came out pushing the ball all over the pitch in the second 40 minutes, and in the 46th minute, Gomez broke through on a pretty goal. She took a pass from teammate Chloe Atkins, drove up the right side and fired over a Hemet defender from the right wing. The ball crossed into the 6-yard box, sailing just over Hemet keeper Valerie Masson and falling into the far side of the net in goal. “When I received the ball, as I was taking it up, I saw that the defender was not too close to me, but also not too far from me,” Gomez said. “So I just went ahead and took my chances, and I was very blessed to have that goal.” The Wildcats were also blessed to have their own keeper in junior Christina Rodriguez, who tallied 10 saves, while also dodging a couple of late bullets. In the 62nd minute, Hemet senior Monserratt Cruz got control of the ball near the right side of the Paloma goal but shot wide despite catching Rodriguez out of goal. A second open-goal opportunity also missed in the match’s waning moments. “There were some positives for us,” Bulldogs coach Craig Dwinnell said. “I felt like going into league, starting Tuesday, that the breaks in this match could have gone either way.” Hemet will enter Mountain Pass League play as a favorite, along with Hemet Tahquitz and a surging Beaumont team. For Paloma Valley, Lake Elsinore Temescal Canyon looks to be the co-favorite in the Sunbelt League, but Dillon is taking nothing for granted. “Last year, we gave up only three goals in league and came in third place,” she said. “We just assume every team in our league has improved. “We take every match very seriously.”