The Douglas Lady Bulldog soccer team kicked off its season Monday with an impressive 2-0 win over Gila Regional foe, the Palo Verde Titans, in first round action of the Brandon Bean Invitational.

Bruce Whetten / Douglas Dispatch Lina Campbell puts a head on the ball in the first half of Monday’s season opener with Palo Verde. Campbell scored two goals in the Lady Bulldogs 2-0 win. Douglas is at Buena today for second round action in the Brandon Bean Invitational.

The match was played at Douglas High School.

Lina Campbell scored both goals for Douglas, 1-0, who heads to Buena today for a second round game.

Campbell’s first goal came with just over two minutes left in the first half off an Elise Urquijo assist as Douglas led 1-0 at the half.

Thirteen minutes into the second half Urquijo fed Campbell the ball and she promptly drilled it into the back of the net.

Douglas out shot Palo Verde 20-9. Lady Bulldog goalie Liz Clark had nine saves.

After the game Douglas’ coach Angelica Chavez said this was a good way for her team to start the season against a very good opponent her team will face three to four more times this year.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means,” she said. “But I saw a lot of good things; a lot of good passing and ball control. I saw a lot of self control today. The girls were not playing kick ball.”

After three weeks of practice Coach Chavez said it was good for her team to finally get out on the field and play against somebody else besides their teammates.

The coach said she was happy to open up against a quality opponent like Palo Verde but at the same time Chavez says both she and the Palo Verde coach didn’t unveil all their weapons leaving some intrigue for the rematch in several weeks.

The coach said unlike in previous years she has a strong bench this year and it was nice to able to sub four to five girls at a time and not miss a beat on the field.

“All the girls played really hard tonight,” she said. “All the girls on this team understand what their role is.”

Chavez said all the girls on the squad got some quality minutes.

Buena is going to be another physical team Chavez’ squad had better be ready for.

“It’s always tough game against them,” she said. “I’m looking forward to how our girls match up. Hopefully it’ll be a good game.”