You don’t normally hear about buzzer beaters in Soccer, but that is exactly what happened Saturday morning as the JV Girls Soccer team traveled to San Ramon and took down the previously undefeated Cal High Grizzlies 2-1. The final goal came courtesy of Maddie Bernstein (#12) who scored after a shot from Mila Ellis (#20) was deflected by the Grizzlies goalie.
This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Dons dominated time of possession and the ball stayed on the Grizzly side of the field most of the time, but they were unable to score. Fortunately the defense, which included Olivia Kemp (#5), Olivia Bernier (#11), Sierra Goyert (#10), and Ella Culbertson (#3) and goalkeeper Maria Statnikova (#0) shut down the Grizzlies offense. Ella and had a nice stop on a would be shot on goal, and Maria had a couple nice saves, including one shot she had to punch out where fortunately the next shot off the rebound sailed wide.
In the second half, the Grizzlies flipped the script and dominated possession. However, the Dons were able to score early in the half when Tatum Walsh (#13) took a shot that was blocked by the goalie, but then rebounded to Grace Eppinger (#22) who scored on an empty net. The Grizzlies nearly scored on a on a bizarre play where the ball almost slow rolled into the goal, and then they did convert a goal on a defensive miscue by the Dons. That goal knotted the score at 1-1 and set the table for Maddie’s late game heroics.
My year of positivity continues. In addition to the above, the setting of the field with the hills in the background was amazing and it was warm again. Also wanted to give shout outs to coach Alex for subbing in again, James for taking these great pictures, Jason for pointing out that our fans must get along better than their fans as we sat closer together (see evidence below) and pointing out how lucky Acalanes JV players are to wear lower numbers (the Grizzly player jerseys started at #25 presumably because the lower numbers are for their varsity players), and an anonymous fan who texted “LMAO over here” to me after the last article.
Get to Know Coach: Coach Jose has one brother and two sisters.
Come cheer on the team as they return home to take on Benicia on Tuesday at 5pm
