Las Lomas means “The Hills” in Spanish. Last year, when my son played the other type of football against Las Lomas, I connected the translation to reality shows. Although tempting to just cut and paste that introduction since I am pretty sure none of you would have read that article, a top notch journalist like myself, who just found out tonight that he has readers coast to coast thanks to Cate Mercier’s grandparents in New Hampshire, wouldn’t do something like that. Instead, I thought I would make as many “hill”-arious puns as possible, such as saying that the Acalanes JV Girls Soccer team battled the whole game instead of running for the hills. Actually those are the only puns I can think of, so now for the recap.
Coming into the game, the Dons knew that scoring against the Knights was going to be a challenge as they had only given up a total of 2 goals in their last 5 games. The Knights’ stingy defense continued as they did not provide the Dons offense with many scoring opportunities given the way they were able to control possession, maintain a high level of energy/aggression, and utilize their sound fundamentals. That being said, the Dons did have a few opportunities. Grace Eppinger had a great run and cross to Danica Green who almost scored. Kate Uffelman also had a shot that almost got the Dons on the board. The one goal that the team was able to score came courtesy of Edie Berzansky, who scored a beautiful goal off the post on a free kick from long distance.
The defense got tested early and often in this game. Evelyn Lee returned from an injury and was kept busy as the holding midfielder. Cate Mercier got the start in the goal and, along with the defensive front of Kate Weiss, Edie Berzansky, Ella Culbertson, Lidia Stahl, Michaela Barbano, and others did a great job trying to keep Knights offense in check. Ella had one play where it looked like she was battling the entire Knights team, and yet was still able to clear the ball. Michaela had a few nice plays, including a steal followed by a dribble up the field. The Knights goals came courtesy of a header off a corner kick, the second a rocket the deflected off the goalie’s hands, and the third a nice ball trap and shoot off a high bouncing crossing pass.
As we close out 2023, I wanted to leave you with a few parting thoughts. First, I wanted to give a shout-out to all the coaches and players for all of their hard work. Second, i wanted acknowledge the fans who have been packing the stands and showing their unwavering support. Third, I wanted to make you aware that one potential pitfall of teaching the grandparents how to livesteam the game is that there is a risk they will ask questions and give unsolicited opinions. Over the course of the game, my dad asked what formation we were running (to which I responded I have no idea), suggested that the team should be playing on grass instead of turf because it is less slippery (to which I responded that I am pretty sure we aren’t going to change that but at least our turf is new), and gave a shout out to #12 (which would be Dani Green). Lastly, I wanted to wish you a very happy holiday spending time with the people you love, including those that provide unsolicited feedback! And to Coach Alex, I hope that your mom makes you your favorite dish, Pupusas. Go Dons!
