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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – The Montevallo Bulldogs earned a pair of crucial momentum-building wins on Tuesday, Feb. 18 as they secured their first victories of the year on their home pitch.

Montevallo’s girls defeated the Minor Tigers 10-0 at Theron Fisher Stadium while the boys walked away with a 6-1 win.

For the girls, it was their first win of the season after having to wait nearly two weeks between their opening night loss to Westminster School at Oak Mountain on Thursday, Feb. 6 and their second match against Minor on Feb. 18. However, they made up for lost time with an emphatic win.

Gloribel Sanchez opened up the scoring for the Bulldogs to put her team up 1-0 in the early minutes of the match.

Shortly after, Alondra Torres followed that up with a goal to increase Montevallo’s lead to 2-0.

Nicole Sosa and Chloe Howard kept the momentum rolling in the hosts favor as they scored the next two goal, taking the lead to 4-0 as the Bulldogs continued to control both ends of the pitch.

Montevallo got an opportunity to add a fifth goal of the total thanks to a chance at the penalty kick spot. Kaylee Ray converted the chance and increased the lead to 5-0 in the process.

Yazmin Chavez got the scoring going again from open field with the Bulldogs’ sixth goal of the night.

Zabdy Perez finished off the first-half scoring with her first goal of the night as Montevallo went into the halftime break up 7-0.

After seven goals from seven different goalscorers in the first half, Sanchez and Torres doubled up on their earlier scores to start the second half. Just like the first half, Sanchez scored the first goal of the second 40 minutes and Torres followed to take the lead to 9-0.

From there, Syndi Salazar scored the final goal of the night to trigger the mercy rule and give Montevallo a 10-0 win.

Perez’s goal late in the first half wasn’t her only offensive contribution as she secured a team-high five assists by helping her team score half of its goals.

Montevallo’s boys also found great success on the offensive end in their 6-1 win over Minor.

The Bulldogs came flying out of the gate with three goals in the first half as they took the fight to the Tigers in the attacking half.

Montevallo also succeeded on the defensive end though, allowing no goals in the first half to go into the break with a 3-0 lead.

That changed in the second half when the Tigers scored their first goal of the game. However, that would prove to be the only offense all night for the visitors.

Not content with their lead, the Bulldogs put three more goals past the Minor defense to finish off the five-goal victory.

Alexis Lopez finished out the game with three goals to secure a hat trick. Irving Choto earned himself a brace thanks to his two goals on the night. Aruturo Alvarenga rounded out the scoring with a goal to give Montevallo the dominant victory.

With the wins, the boys improved to 3-1-1 on the year while the girls are now 1-1. The boys will return to action on the road on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. when they face Bessemer City.

As for the girls, they will play in the Lakeshore Shootout against Stanhope Elmore on Friday, Feb. 21 at 2:30 p.m., Leeds on Friday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. and Carver-Birmingham on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 9 a.m. All games will take place at Calera’s Eagle Sports Complex.