A standout defender on Central Valley’s varsity girls soccer team for the past three years, Citlaly Salinas has made a name for herself while starring at forward this winter.

Salinas scored her 12th and 13th goals of the season during the Hawks’ 4-3 loss to the Buhach Colony Thunder in Central California Conference play on Jan. 14 in Ceres.

“It’s different,” she said. “All the pressure is on you to try to score goals. A lot of my teammates look up to me.”

Central Valley dropped to 5-8-1 overall and remained in third place in the CCC (1-3-1).

Buhach Colony improved to 4-2-5 and moved into a tie for second place with Golden Valley in the conference standings (2-1-2).

The Hawks are vying for their fifth straight conference title and sixth consecutive playoff berth.

“We have a young team,” Salinas said. “There aren’t a lot of seniors. We’ve played really good at times this season. We just have to try to win the rest of our games.”

Salinas found the back of the net twice in helping the Hawks build a 2-0 lead in the opening half against the Thunder.

Buhach Colony responded with a four-goal flurry in a 10-minute span in the second half.

“I thought we were going to win,” Salinas said. “We were playing really well in the first half. We just got too confident.”

Malina Keomuangchanh’s goal cut the deficit to 4-3 with less than 10 minutes to play.

“We were trying hard to tie the game,” Salinas said. “We had a couple chances.”