On Saturday, the 8-4-1 JV girls soccer team traveled to Pleasant Hill to take on the 10-1-5 College Park Falcons in their penultimate game of the season. The game was decided on a couple of unfortunate plays, the first being an own goal, and the second a play where the defender was unable to clear the ball, which enabled the Falcons player to make a nice assist to their striker who was able to convert the goal.
Other than those two plays, the Dons put up a really good fight and could have easily walked away with a 0-0 tie against a very good team. On defense, goalie Cate Mercier (#00) played an outstanding game, blocking shot after shot and keeping the Dons in the game. Olivia Kemp (#5) continued to play solid defense, stealing balls, dribbling up the field, and making some difficult cross field passes. Alexa Wall got called up from the frosh and the furious team again and played some key minutes on the defensive end.
On offense, the Dons had several scoring opportunities that were either slightly off target or thwarted by the Falcons goalie. Michaela Barbano (#18) had a powerful shot early that sailed just over the crossbar. Caroline Tumilty (#8) followed that shot with a couple great through passes to Julia Munter (#15) that led to shots, one of which was slightly off target, and the other was saved by a great diving play from the Falcons goalie. Julia would go on to have another great shot that was also saved, and also had a sequence where she knocked over (inadvertently) 2 Falcon defenders in a row. Caroline had her usual assortment of powerful shots that she nearly converted to goals. Wingers Avery Titus (#2) and Grace Eppinger (#22) also both had several nice dribbles and shots.
And now to the shout outs. First, shout out to Coach Jose and the team for executing a great game plan against a very good team, which is a testament to how far this team has come during the course of this season. Second, shout out to the stadium designers who enabled us to huddle together in visitor bleachers that looked like they belonged alongside a sandlot baseball field, while the home bleachers looked like they were from a college stadium. Third, shout out to the Falcons pole vault coach who challenged his athletes that kept running in front of us to try to spin the ball on the end of their poles. And lastly, shout out to a sophisticated heat beam called a “laser” (yes, intentional Austin Powers quote thrown in here). Why a laser? Apparently they use one on the baseball field at College Park to scare away animals, which then led the fans to reminisce about all the great movies in the 80s and 90s. Groovy Baby Yeah!
Game Photos: https://go.teamsnap.com/8816872/files/list/5298644
Get to Know Coach: Coach’s favorite color is yellow, favorite vacation spot is Orange County “can’t go wrong with a nice day at the beach”, and fun fact that most people don’t know about him is that he won a spelling bee contest in 8th grade.
The girls wrap up the season at home against Northgate on Thursday (2/13) at 5pm. The game will be followed by Senior Night activities.