New Team Holds National Champs Scoreless Until 90th Minute!
Pali wins 1-0 but Blue Heat Prove Worthy Contenders

This past Saturday night, two Southern California teams went head to head in their first 2010 USL W-League season game. One team - 2 time, back-to-back National Champions Pali Blues. Their challengers; A brand new team in the USL W-League, The Santa Clarita Blue Heat.

As the game got underway, anyone could see that both teams came out to play their best game. The Pali Blues defending their reputation as National Champs, were out to prove 2010 would fair no different than the previous 2 seasons and Santa Clarita was out to prove they could compete with the best.

The Blues showing a relaxed natural passing game, came out early attacking the Blue Heat goal with several shots but the Blue Heat defense showed that it was not going to back down easily. Mexico International Team goalkeeper for the Blue Heat, Anjuli Ladrón De Guevara kept the backfield safe as The Blues continued to pressure the Blue Heat defense. Santa Clarita defenders Shannon Omahen, Kendall VanDine and Brooke Beeson relentlessly kept attackers at bay while midfielder captian Yvonne Northover continued to feed the Blue Heat offense with oppotunities that would also be denied by the strong Pali defense.

At halftime the score was 0-0. The Blue Heat fans started to get louder as the hope started to set in that this new team could possibly beat the best team in the USL. The second half remained scoreless with Santa Clarita creating more scoring oppotunities than the first half as Blue Heat forward Cherelle Khassal gave the Pali defenders several good attempts.

As the game clock got to 89 minutes and the score remained 0-0, with the crowds on both sides chanting louder than ever trying to out-do each other, the Blue Heat was doing everything they could to make it another 60 seconds to be the first team to ever tie the Champs on their own home field. As the clock reached 89:20 Tiana Brockway of the Pali Blues sent the ball over to Ali Hawkins who with 40 seconds to spare managed to put the ball into the Blue Heat goal and win the game for the Pali Blues.
"Although the last minute goal meant a loss for us, this game gave us a great confidence that we belong here and we are ready for a great season." said team owner Carlos Marroquin.