This week is supposed to start revealing if Tolleson is a pretender or contender.

So far, after winning its second of three games this week, it’s leaning toward the latter. On Thursday, Tolleson shifted to its top speed after scoring its first goal.

Forward Armando Valdez tallied that goal and added another in the waning minutes of Thursday's non-section 3-0 home victory for Tolleson. Valdez and his team didn’t take their first shot until Valdez’s first goal in the 13th minute, but a slow start is nothing new for the team this season.

The team has scored most of its 45 goals in the second half of games this season. 

The game evened out after the first goal, and when the final minutes of the first half approached, Tolleson then began to take control.

“Our chemistry is so good this year,” Valdez said. “We are taking care of each other.”

But one thing or another was missing, keeping Tolleson, a solid soccer program, from making a playoff push in recent years.

But the pieces appear to be in place this year.

“We knew during this past offseason that we were going to be a different team compared to the past few years,” Tolleson’s fifth-year coach Benjamin Adronic said. “Club (soccer). Injuries. We didn’t have the players for different reasons. But there’s a new feeling this year, which we weren’t seeing.”

Three of the players who are helping Tolleson regain its soccer footing, Valdez, defender Miguel Vasquez and goalkeeper Alan Cazares, didn’t play last year.

But on Thursday, those players stood out. Cazares blocked Pinnacle’s best scoring chances, first by using his right foot to redirect a shot in the first half and then using his hands to thwart another scoring attempt in the second half.

Vasquez also saved his team a couple of times, especially when it got off to its customary slow start. Valdez is a strong forward with good ball control skills.

(Armando Valdez)

He used those tools to score his first goal, when he made a run up the middle and then escaped from Pinnacle’s goalkeeper to set up his open net strike. Tolleson (8-0) could have scored more first half goals but goalkeeper Robby Kalna (nine saves) was on his game.

The only big error Kalna made came 42 seconds into the second half, when he couldn’t control a free kick from about 30 yards that went off his hands and then bounced in for Cesar Martinez’s ninth goal of the year. Valdez scored the final goal after receiving a pass from Emmanuel Rayas and making a run down the right flank.

“We missed some opportunities,” Pinnacle (4-2) coach Brock Heykoop said. “We’ll be fine. We just need to make some minor adjustments. That’s a quick and smart team we played.”