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"That's just Lulu being Lulu," Parkdale coach Melka Ostchega said from the sideline, a few feet away.
Called out and done with the act, Alexander sprinted past a Laurel defender who had assumed she was hurt.
"Yea," Lurona deadpanned as she received the throw in. "I'm just being Lulu."
On Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 4A South Region playoffs, being Lulu also meant scoring the first two goals of a 3-0 Parkdale win with a grin on her face.
"I think I'm funny and I like to make fun of myself," said Alexander, a 16-year-old freshman who recently moved to the area from Grenada. "I'm really excited about scoring, so every time I get hit I act like I'm hurt so I can get ahead of the defense."
But Alexander didn't need the ruse Friday in Laurel as she scored two first-half goals in traffic, each shot coming less than 5 feet away from the net.
Both were set up by long, lateral passes from Parkdale captain Zulia Menjivar-Bermudez, who leads the team with 15 goals in 14 games. Menjivar-Bermudez added a goal on a penalty kick that she punched into the bottom left corner with less than five minutes left in the game.
The senior captain single-handedly dictated the pace of the game, keeping the ball on Laurel's half of the field for most of the first half. In the second half, as Menjivar-Bermudez and the rest of the Panthers grew tired, their solid defense and one-touch passing held Laurel to just one shot on goal.
"She's the heart of this team," Ostchega said. "She moves the ball and works hard in every game. She's absolutely vital for our success."
Menjivar-Bermudez said after the game that she was happy to have a chance to play Parkdale soccer another day.
"I didn't want this to be my last game in a Parkdale uniform," she said.
Parkdale (5-8-1) will visit Charles H. Flowers High in the regional quarterfinals on Tuesday. Laurel (4-8) finished its regular season on a high note, winning four in a row after an 0-9 start.
"Honestly, I didn't think we'd win four games this year but I was proved wrong," said Laurel senior sweeper Casey Page. "We started off rough, but overall, I'm really proud of the way we finished."