Coyotes put away Edson early

The Madera Coyotes girls soccer team scored four first half goals and cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Edison-Fresno Tigers in Memorial Stadium.

Although the Coyotes put away Edison early, first-year head coach Cynthia Moreno wanted a cleaner performance, especially heading into the last week of the regular season.

“I expect a certain level of play and it needs to be consistent throughout,” Moreno said.

However, after wins over Sanger and Madera South, the Coyotes have a three-game winning streak with two games left to go this week.

“It’s huge,” Moreno said. “I hope they continue with this momentum. The girls are seeing their hard work pay off. We are getting more kids seeing the field and they are a part of the overall success, which is nice.”

Moreno also pointed out that her team scored its first goals of the season from a penalty kick, a free kick and a corner kick in the two matches this week.

“A lot of our goals have been through build ups and combinations,” she said. “It’s good to see them be able to do these things.”

The Coyotes put the Tigers away early with four goals on four chances on goal in the first half.

Two minutes into the match, Atiana Piñon, who assisted on three of the five goals, got the ball on the right and sent it to the middle. Mia Roberts let the ball go across to Layla Martinez on the right. Martinez sent the ball by the keeper to the far corner for the goal.

In the 15th minute, Roberts and Piñon played give-and-go in the middle with Roberts getting the go. Roberts got the ball in front, dribbled to the middle and shot inside the right post for the 2-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Emma Schubert got the ball on the left side and sent a high cross to the goal. The ball went over and behind the Edison goalkeeper and hit off the far crossbar. The ball bounced off the goalkeeper and back into the net for a 3-0 lead.

With a minute left in the first half, Madera got a free kick from about 25 yards out. Moreno sent defender Madison Barba for the kick. She sent the ball into the upper right corner over the wall and past the hands of the goalkeeper for a 4-0 halftime lead.

Madera added a goal 13 minutes into the second half to secure the win. Jazzell Ruiz got a pass from Piñon in the middle. Ruiz pulled the ball back, got past a defender and sent a shot to the back of the net for the 5-0 win.