JV vs. Cy Ranch High School

On Tuesday the girls took a break from studying for finals to travel to Cy Ranch High School for their second game of the season. Everyone was grateful it was a much nicer night than last week for some soccer. It took the girls about fifteen minutes to settle in and find a groove. Once they started shooting, they never looked back. Emmie Muras intercepted a goal kick. Muras passed it to Sophomore Kaija Sola, who laid it back to Muras. Muras fired a one-touch shot on goal, but the goalie made a great save. A couple of minutes later, Bella Saavedra stole the ball out wide and found Muras in the middle. Muras sent a beautiful ball forward to the opposite side, where she found Trysta Truong running on. Truong took it in stride as she beat her defender to punch the ball in and put us on the board. SHS 1 - CRHS - 0.

About a minute and a half later, hard work by the Spartans resulted in a corner kick. Truong took the corner and sent the ball sailing to the back post where she found Annie Katterhenry. Katterhenry made a nice touch to set up a shot on goal. The goalie made a great save, but Sola was there ready and waiting to put in the deflection for goal number two. SHS 2 - CRHS -0. The girls worked hard for the last couple of minutes to try and find the net again. Freshman Brooklyn Baber threw the ball into Truong, who crossed it. The ball hit off of Freshman Sofia Aguilar, but the goalie scooped it up to keep the score at 2-0 at half.

The girls spent the first ten minutes of the second half pressuring, switching the field, and working to get shots on goal, but none of the attempts would find the back of the net. Eventually the hard work paid off. Ella Bui won the ball in the middle of the field. Bui found Baber out wide, who did a give-and-go with Bui. Bui made the perfect touch that set her up to take a beautiful shot that sailed over the goalie’s head for goal number three. SHS 3 - CRHS 0.

With about fifteen minutes left, our defenders decided to get involved a little. Lily Terveen won the ball in the back. Terveen and the other center defender, Mia Leonoras, did a give-and-go. Terveen turned and beat the forward before she found Bui's feet in the middle. Bui then played the ball out wide to another Spartan defender, Freshman Elise Bernadac, who sent a through-ball up front to Sola, but she was called offsides. A few minutes later, we were called for a foul giving the Mustangs their first real chance on goal. They took a great shot,  but goalie Sophomore Sofia Schultz came up big on the save, knocking it away so that Sophomore Katherine Fowler could clear it out. Once the girls got that out of their system, they went back on the attack. With seven minutes left, Freshman Dalton Cashman won the ball in the middle. Cashman turned and found Saavedra out wide, who turned and found Sofia Denson making a run in the middle. Denson sent it back out wide to Saavedra, who dribbled down and tried to cross, but the effort resulted in a goal kick. A couple minutes later, Junior Julia Wolf won the ball off of a punt. Wolf found a nice pass to Muras, who turned and played a through-ball to Sola. The goalie came out and made a great save to deny our final efforts. The final score was SHS 3 - CRHS 0.

JV vs. Katy Jordan

Five minutes in, Mia Leonoras intercepted the ball off of an offensive attack. Leonoras turned and found Annie Katterhenry across the field, who took a touch before laying the ball back to Lily Terveen. Terveen found Trysta Truong up top with a nice one-touch pass. Truong turned and laid a nice through-ball up to Kaija Sola, who raced to catch it, but the goalie was able to come out and clear it. This game quickly showed it was going to be a battle in the middle of the field as the ball went back and forth between the two teams.

At about the 23-minute mark, Truong was fouled on the sidelines. Ella Bui stepped up to take the free kick about 15 yards out. Her leg was just too powerful from that distance, so the ball sailed over the goal. About three minutes later, a hand ball was called against us on the other end of the field. This allowed the Warriors to get a free kick of their own from 45 yards out. The ball sailed in, but Sophia Schulz was able to punch it over. After five more minutes of battling, KJHS was able to evade our defenders and go on the attack. Terveen came over to slow her down, so the forward took a desperate shot from 25 yards out that skipped on the turf and found the back of the net to make the score SHS 0 - KJHS 1. This seemed to wake up our girls. We put the pedal to the medal and about one and a half minutes later, we found the back of the net ourselves. Schulz punted the ball to midfield. After the ball bounced around for a bit, Emmie Muras came up with it and quickly played a through-ball forward to Truong. Truong realized the goalie was way too far out of her goal, so she took a one-touch shot from 25 yards out to catch them off guard and tie the game. SHS 1 - KJHS 1.

We only needed a couple more minutes before we attacked again. Bui won the ball in the middle of the field and quickly turned and played the ball out wide to Truong. She took a couple of touches before playing the ball forward to Sola running on. Sola took it down towards the end line and, at the last second, laid it into the middle of the box, where Brooklyn Baber took a nice touch before putting the ball in the back of the net to make the score SHS 2 - KJHS 1. The Spartans did a great job fighting off the Warriors' attack for the next five minutes, but ultimately it wasn't enough.

With six minutes left, Julia Wolf chased their forward down and was able to stop her, but it ended up going out for a corner. The girl sent a nice ball into the box where one of the Warriors got a foot on it and was able to place the perfect shot into the back corner to tie the game again, SHS 2 - KJHS 2. This seemed to give Jordan the fire this time. With three minutes left, they were able to find a through-ball past our defenders, allowing them to take a great shot from 20 yards out, but Schulz came up with a great save to keep it tied. They continued to attack, and ultimately it was too much for our defense,  and Jordan was able to find the net again to make it SHS 2 - KJHS 3. With 30 seconds left, we made one final push as Schulz punted the ball 60 yards over the entire defense to Truong running onto it, but she just couldn’t get a shot off before time expired.

The Spartans had their work cut out for them starting the second half down a goal, so they put the pressure on early. Three minutes in, another great punt by Schulz sent Sola on the run again. She chased it down and forced them to lay the ball back to their goalie. The goalie quickly played the ball out wide to her defender, where Baber put pressure on her, forcing her to make a bad pass into the middle that found Truong. Truong laid it back to Muras, who took a touch before she tried to find Sola up top, but the ball scooted through a little too far, so the goalie was able to snatch it up.

Both teams traded off attacks for the next five minutes. With about 25 minutes left, Elise Bernadac stopped their attack by heading the ball out. It ended up at Muras's feet. Muras turned to find Bella Saavedra, but the ball was intercepted. Bui won the ball back. Bui turned and found Truong out wide, who battled the defender down to the end line before the ball went out for our first corner of the half. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on the corner.

It was another 15 minutes of back-and-forth attacks before the Warriors got their first corner of the half. Terveen put a stop to that attack with her header clearance that found Sola up top. Sola tried to flick the ball behind her so she could run onto it, but the defender came in and cleared it out. Both teams kept pressuring for another five minutes. Eventually, Terveen stepped up and intercepted a pass from one of the Warriors. She found Truong out wide, who found Blair Hunter in the middle. Hunter played the ball up top to Baber. The ball came in a little hot, so it ricocheted off of Baber and scooted past all of the defenders toward the goal. As the defender went to lay the ball back to the goalie, Saavedra put pressure on her, which made her make a bad pass backwards. Baber wasted no time chasing it down, but the goalie was able to recover in the knick of time to clear it out for a corner.

Once again, we couldn't capitalize so the hunt for a goal continued. With a minute left, the girls made a last ditch effort for a goal. Bernadac won the ball in the back and passed it up top to Truong. She battled against two defenders before they cleared the ball out of bounds. Quickly Truong threw the ball in to Sofia Aguilar, who turned and found Hunter in the middle. Hunter made a great turn as she lined it up to take a shot but was pushed to the ground. The lack of call by the ref left the Spartans frustrated because this meant time would expire without us getting the goal we needed to tie. It was a great effort by the Spartans, but the girls came up just short in the end. The final score was SHS 2 - KJHS 3.

The next game is Monday, December 30th vs. The Woodlands High School at 5:30 pm at Stratford High School. If you are in town, please come out and support the girls.