Photo by Stephen Dachman
In a game with a lot on the line, great players elevate themselves—even then, they don’t often reach the heights that Emily Dillon did in leading her Wilson Bruins against Lakewood on Thursday, as the senior forward scored a hat trick in the first 32 minutes of play to help seal a 4-0 win, and sole possession of first place. The hattie is actually Dillon’s second consecutive in league, having posted one against Cabrillo on Tuesday.
“There are times when I just can’t buy a goal,” said Dillon after a game. “But I don’t know, they’ve been going in lately—I’ve been getting lucky.”
In the early minutes, it looked like Wilson may have come out flat, as Lakewood forced the ball deep three times, all shots and chances ending up well wide of the goal. Still, despite senior Brittany Vaughn’s effort in the backfield, Wilson struggled to get traction. Until Dillon got going, that is. Her first goal came in the sixth minute, as she worked to the right side of the goal, turned around a Lakewood defender, then bent a medium-range shot in with her left foot to take the lead. Just six minutes later, a free kick from Kim Marshall went down the center of the field, and Dillon poked it past a defender, then sent it into the Lancer net to make it two-nil. Twenty minutes after that, she juked a defender and then bombed a long ball to the top shelf, then turned and smiled at her bench, knocking in her third straight to make it 3-0, just 32 minutes into the game.
“When you start three of three at the beginning of the game,” said her coach, Jason Kirkwood, “it takes the pressure off.”
Wilson did a good job smothering the Lakewood offense, particularly the excellent forward tandem of Kendahl Fisher and Kassidy Hause, who have 34 goals between them this season, but never got much of a chance to get going in this one.
Lakewood’s chances were limited, but they did have a few—in the 34th minute, Brittney Ortega had the ball in front of an open goal after it ricocheted off Wilson keeper Breegan Saller, but the ball wouldn’t find the net. Hause had a free kick that was in-range, but the ball dropped too quickly and landed in Saller’s waiting hands. Wilson got their fourth goal on a great effort by Kim Marshall in the opening minute of the second half.
“I thought it was one of the better games we’ve played,” said Kirkwood, whose team moved to 4-0-1 in league. They’ll visit Millikan next Tuesday. Lakewood suffers their first defeat and falls to 4-1. Their Tuesday match is a huge tilt against Poly, who at 3-0-2 will be hungry to battle back towards the top of the standings box.