By Srijia Srinivasan | Staff Writer

On Thursday, Jan. 8, Irvington’s junior varsity girl’s soccer team played a game against James Logan High School. The first half of the game consisted primarily of Irvington’s goalie, Tasneem Khan, defending numerous goals attempted by Logan’s team. Irvington managed to maintain the score at 0-0 throughout the first half.

“I think we’re doing well,” Khan said during half-time. “Everybody was very nervous for this game, The fact that it’s still tied is good.”

During the second half, however, things got a bit more complicated. Logan scored one goal, which Irvington was quick to tie up as Aletheia Tovera scored a free kick goal with Cindy Hsiao making the assist. After Irvington scored again, Logan made another goal. However, after this second goal, Irvington goalie Tasneem Khan was, as described by her teammate Sonali Amin, “lying on the ground holding her face.” Amin went on to say “I had never seen Tasneem like that before. She usually gets up pretty soon after she takes a hit.” Because of this foul, the referee called that the goal was invalid.

However, after some time, the referee reversed this call he made and the final score ended up being 2-1 in Logan’s favor. This final ruling was very controversial and upset many Irvington players. The team’s coach, Adam Hernandez, and Irvington’s athletic director, Michelle Stone, are discussing a rematch game with Logan. Tovera said, “Overall, we did excellent as a team. Even with the unfair calls from the ref, I think the whole team really connected and we were able to go toe-to-toe with one of the toughest schools in our league.”