The girls’ varsity soccer team triumphed over the Branson Bulls 3-1 on a cold, sunny Saturday morning, handing the Giants their first victory over the Bulls in two years.

Redwood started their season off 4-1-1 in the league, tieing Novato and losing to Tam. Otherwise, the Giants have dominated, with their strong offense consisting of two of the three top scorers in the league thus far. Halford has currently scored 10 goals and senior Lauren Foehr eight goals.

“Often times, we will be the team to score early or get the first goal, but we didn’t today,” Halford said.

Due to some troubles with possession and back and forth play between the teams, the Giants let up an early goal in the first half, giving the Bulls a 0-1 lead.

However, once the Giants started to communicate better and connect consecutive passes, they were able to take advantage of their chances in the Bulls’ territory.

“Lauren Foehr and I just looked at each other and knew it was time,” Halford said.

By the end of the first half, Foehr, a starting attacking mid for the Giants, assisted both of Halford’s goals scored in the first half.

“The most dangerous lead in soccer is when you are up 2-1,” Halford said. “At halftime, we talked about how we needed to score another goal or else we weren’t going to win.”

Sure enough, freshman Grace Bouton was assisted by Foehr in the six-yard box to finalize the Giants’ victory 3-1 midway through the second half.

Redwoods’ strong back four — juniors Lauren Bell, Hannah Rollo, Lauren Blazei and Audrey Peck — shut down Branson’s attack in the second half.

“We really wanted to enforce the defensive aspect of the game and not just the offensive side because then we could be broken down easily,” Halford said.

The Giants, currently in third place in MCAL, take on the Drake Pirates tomorrow, Jan. 24, on their home turf.