Competing in the Butch Lee Memorial Soccer Tournament, the Cathedral Catholic High School girl’s varsity soccer team dropped a close match today 2-1 to Santa Ana Mater Dei High School at Manchester Stadium.

“This is only our third game and we haven’t even had a full practice with the whole team yet,” CCHS girl’s varsity soccer Head Coach Dawn Lee said. “There’s obviously a lot we still need to work on, but it was good to see the things we could do early on.”

A heavy downpour ushered in the start of the match as Mater Dei kicked off, and the Lady Dons quickly took control of the ball. Due to the intense wind and blinding conditions from the rain, players from both teams kept slipping and making minor mistakes. The more than 100 fans in the stadium were soaked within minutes after the kick-off due to lack of overhead coverage.

CCHS and MDHS battled each other for opening possession of the ball, but the Dons pulled out and Madison Mercado ’19 made a short goal, tacking on the first point of the game 1-0.

“The highlight of the game for us was definitely when we scored a pretty nice goal in the beginning,” Lee said. “But we have to work on our team’s defense.”

Progressively running the clock down to fifteen minutes during the first half, MDHS’s offense began to make faster strides toward the CCHS’s goalie, and a short goal was made against the Dons, tying the score 1-1 mid-way through the first half.

“Mater Dei’s a really good team, and they know how to come at you with the numbers,” Lee said. “We also had a little bit of trouble with people in a lot of new positions.”

Almost immediately after scoring, MDHS came back to score another short goal, pushing its lead to 2-1. Both teams failed to score any other goals during the rest of the first half.

So many CCHS students showed up to support the Lady Dons that at one point Coach Lee had to demand everyone to walk back to class.

With the bleachers almost entirely cleared of everyone, the second half of the match began slightly differently than the first half. Though it was certainly windy, the dreary weather cleared up, and CCHS began showing off its offensive power. Not a single goal was scored during the second half, but CCHS seemed to play a lot more aggressive than MDHS.

There were several instances during the second half where CCHS was close to scoring goals, but Mater Dei’s defense was impenetrable, making a score for the Dons unachievable. With two minutes left in the match, both teams attempted to make final goal attempts, but failed, leaving the final score at 2-1.

“I think we worked really hard,” Kerry Kuhnert ’16 said. “But it’s just the beginning of our season, so of course there’s room for improvement. I think its only uphill from here.”

This contest was the third match of the annual Butch Lee Memorial Tournament held at CCHS. The CCHS girl’s varsity soccer team defeated San Marcos on Tuesday 3-1 and beat Ranch Bernardo yesterday 2-0.

“Butch Lee was my father,” Coach Lee said. “He coached at Uni for twelve years, and when he passed away I took over as coach. He always wanted to have a tournament and we’ve been proudly doing this for nine years now.”

CCHS girl’s varsity soccer team next plays this same MDHS team Wednesday at the NORCO Mater Dei Invitational.