Perhaps the largest crowd to watch them play this season had barely settled into their lawn chairs when the San Antonio Athenians found themselves already in a hole.

A defensive miscue only three minutes into the contest led to the local squad facing an early deficit vs. Tulsa, Okla.-based Side FC 92 in a showdown between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Southwest Conference standings of United Women’s Soccer.

“Being down 1-0, you don’t want to start freaking out and start going crazy,” Athenians SC forward Amanda Smith said. “You want to keep your composure, and I think we did that.”

Essentially, the Athenians didn’t break a sweat on a sweltering evening when it was hard not to.

Brooke Hanson and Smith each tallied first-half goals and the Athenians rallied for a 2-1 win vs. Side FC 92 at the Soccer Central complex.

The Athenians (5-1, 15 points) won their third in a row and now have a six-point lead over second-place Lone Star Republic (3-0, nine points), the club that handed them their lone setback. The Athenians have played more games than any other conference team.

“I think we grew into the game a bit,” Athenians defender Ashley Cathro said. “I think 10, 15 minutes in we really started to pass the ball around well and make good combination plays, and that really helped us go forward and create some good chances on goal.”

The Alamo City squad shook off an inauspicious en route to claiming its third straight win by a 2-1 score line. Side FC 92 forward Vanessa Fitch stripped the ball away from Athenians defender Sarah Bayhi at the top of the penalty area and buried a shot past to give the visiting team an early 1-0 advantage.

It was the second straight home game, and the third time at home this season, the Athenians faced an early deficit. They fell behind Williamson County FC 1-0 midway through the first half on Tuesday and had the identical score line after scoring an own goal vs. Central Texas Hornets on May 22. All three goals were off defensive miscues.

“I think they’ve been able to capitalize on our mistakes early in the game,” Cathro said. “In the first 15 minutes, we just have to be sharper and cleaner in the back and learn from these mistakes moving forward into these more important games.”

The Athenians needed only a minute to respond to — and erase — the deficit. Hanson, who was a standout at New Braunfels High School, tied it at 1-1 when she slotted a ball inside the right post following a corner kick from Paityn Bretzer. Side FC’s Bree Doeble tried to clear Bretzer’s pass, but misplayed the ball and it rolled straight to Hanson.
Seventeen minutes later, Smith put the Athenians ahead for good when she ran onto a pass from Bretzer, did a stop-and-go move that froze defender Raquel Fanelli, and then blasted a left-footed shot into the right-side netting.
Smith netted the game-winner for the second straight match.

“It was kind of a fluky goal,” Smith said of Side FC’s score. “We came back and Brooke put one in the net, and then we kind of had momentum from there and we finished it off.”

From there, defenders Cathro, Jamie Erickson, Bayhi and Ashley Newland yielded little ground in front of goalkeeper Mia Wildeman, while Paityn Bretzer, Emma Durain, Olivia Wright, Eden Bretzer, Jillian Martinez and Isabella Beletic teamed up to control the midfield.

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