JV vs. Jersey Village

The Spartans came out on Wednesday this week and took it to the Jersey Village Falcons. About 2 minutes in, the girls earned a corner kick. Sophomore - Ella Bui took the corner from the left side of the field. She laid the ball beautifully into the middle of the box and found the head of Sophomore - Kaija Sola. Her header hit off of a defender,  then found it's way into the back of the net to make the score SHS 1 - JVHS 0. The girls continued to put pressure on the Falcons. As the Spartans continued to pressure, several shots by Sophomore - Bella Saavedra and one by Sophomore - Lily Terveen were saved by the goalie to temporarily keep the score at 1-0. Eventually the work would pay off. Freshman - Emmie Muras would win the ball in the middle of the field. She turned and found Bui's feet, and she continued moving the ball up to Saavedra. She laid the ball back to Sophomore - Sylvia Castenada, who would beat her defender before finding Sola up top. After a nice spin move to turn toward goal, she dribbled to the end line and then crossed the perfect ball on the ground right in front of the goal, finding Sophomore - Trysta Truong crashing, which allowed Truong to tap the ball in to make the score SHS 2 - JVHS 0. Five minutes later, the Spartans offense struck again. Saavedra intercepted a goal kick from the Falcons' defender. She found Freshman - Sofia Denson in the middle, and she made a nice turn and found Bui making an overlapping run on the other side. She took a good set-up touch before she fired off a shot that hit the post and then found the back of the net. SHS 3 - JVHS 0. A few minutes later, Sola used her speed to put pressure on the defense forcing them to make a bad pass, which ended up at the feet of Bui. Bui sent the perfect through-ball to the backside, which found Saavedra running toward goal, where she didn't hesitate in putting the finishing touch on the ball as we watched her slip the ball past the goalie near post to make the score SHS 4 - JVHS 0. The final goal of the half came with about 10 minutes left on the clock. Junior - Maddie Verrett won the ball off of a Falcon goal kick. She dribbled it to the end line and then crossed the ball toward the middle of the field. The ball hit off of a defender and went out for a corner. Bui sent a great ball into the middle of the box, but the goalie came out and deflected it away. The ball landed at Freshman - Annie Katterhenry's feet at the top of the box. She took a great one-touch shot, but once again the goalie deflected it away. This time the ball landed at Freshman - Mia Leonoras's feet at the top of the box. She beat one defender, then slipped the ball forward to Freshman - Sofia Aguilar. Her quick one-touch pass across the goal was too fast for the Falcons to have a reaction, which allowed the ball to slip through to Verrett waiting patiently on the back post, where she was able to tap it in. SHS 5 - JVHS 0. The Spartans spent the last 10 minutes of the half playing keep-away. It was quite the display of ball control as everyone on the field touched the ball and showed off their skills.

The second half saw a new group of Spartan girls on the field ready to show off their teamwork. This group did not waste any time making their mark on the scoreboard. Just a couple of minutes in, we won the ball in the middle of the field. The ball was laid backwards to Junior - Julia Wolf. She would switch the field and find Sophomore - Amyrlin Duhon. She passed a nice ball forward to Verrett, who laid a one -touch ball backwards to Freshman - Macy Sanchez, who sent a great ball out wide to the feet of Aguilar. She turned, beat her defender, and then dribbled 50 yards to the end line before she crossed the ball. The ball was deflected out for a corner by the goalie. Sanchez took the corner and sent the perfect ball into the middle of the box, where Verrett and Freshman - Dalton Cashman teamed up to put the ball in the net, making it SHS 6 - JVHS 0. For the next 10 minutes, the girls played keep-away. It was a very nice display of movement and ball skills by all the Spartan girls. With 20 minutes left, the girls got the go-ahead nod to put some more goals on the board so that we could invoke the mercy rule. The girls were ready and willing. Within a couple of minutes, Katterhenry stole the ball from a Falcon forward and sent it across the field, but it was deflected by a defender only to end up at the feet of Muras. She would one-touch the ball up to Sola, who would settle the ball down to her feet, then feed it out wide to Saavedra. She would switch the field on the perfect one-touch cross that would find Truong waiting on the backside. Truong showed off her skill with a great first-touch to a half-volley finish to find the back of the net to make it SHS 7 - JVHS 0. With a little over 13 minutes left in the game, Duhon won the ball off of a Falcon free kick. She found Katterhenry out wide, who schooled her defender with her quick moves and then fed the ball to Sola up top. She made a great turn, then outran the defense to the end line,  where she crossed the ball into the middle of the box. Freshman - Blair Hunter was the first to connect with the ball, sending it back to Saavedra, who fired off a shot. The goalie came up big again knocking the ball down, but Truong was once again ready and waiting to hammer the ball in for her first HAT TRICK of the season and to solidify the 8-goal mercy rule. Final score SHS 8 - JVHS 0.

JV vs. Cy Fair High School

Game 2 of the week was played on Saturday morning at Cy Fair High School. You couldn't ask for better weather. We had sunny, cloudless skies. Despite missing some girls for various reasons, this Spartan squad was on a mission to dominate the Bobcats and dominate they did. Within just a few minutes, Sophomore - Lily Terveen won the ball in the back and found Sophomore - Kaija Sola, who turned and beat her defender. She then dribbled toward the end line before laying the ball across to Sophomore - Bella Saavedra at the top of the box  ready to take a shot. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the net. Regardless, it sent a message to Cy Fair that our girls were here to win! A few minutes later, the Bobcats were awarded a free kick on their end of the field. Freshman - Sofia Aguilar won the ball off of the kick and played the ball to Sola, who did a spin move to find herself in front of the goal, but the goalie made the first of her many saves for the day. With about 20 minutes left in the 1st half, Sophomore - Sylvia Castaneda threw the ball into Freshman - Sofia Denson. Denson did a give-and-go with Sola, then took it to the end line and crossed the ball to Freshman - Blair Hunter, who took a nice shot on goal, but it resulted in save #2 from the Bobcat goalie. The goalie's punt landed at the feet of Freshman - Mia Leonoras, who laid the ball back to Terveen. She took a couple of touches forward, then found Freshman - Elise Bernadac out wide. Bernadac laid a nice ball up the line to Saavedra, who took a great touch that beat her defender. She dribbled toward the end line and then took a great shot to beat the goalie near post to make the score SHS 1 - CFHS 0. For the next 10 minutes, the Spartans kept the pressure on, but nothing seemed to want to find the back of the net. With about 2 minutes left in the half, Leonoras stepped up and intercepted a pass from the Bobcats. She laid a nice ball in the middle to Denson, who turned and found Hunter up top. Hunter turned and looked to beat her defender, but was fouled in the box. The Spartans were given a penalty kick. Saavedra stepped up and put the ball in the back of the net to make the score SHS 2 - CFHS 0 going into the second half.

The second half was more domination by the Spartans. The girls made the Bobcat's goalie work. Within minutes of the start, Castaneda found Saavedra, who crossed it to Junior - Maddie Verrett, but the goalie made the save resulting in a corner. Terveen took the corner and found Sola, but Sola's header was too powerful so it went over. Just a minute later, the Spartans were awarded a free kick. Terveen found Verrett, who laid it back to Terveen. She turned and found Sophomore - Katharine Fowler, who crossed it to Sola. Sola's shot was once again saved by the goalie. For the next 10 minutes, the girls took several shots at goal, but they either ended up going wide or finding the goalie's magnetic hands. Twenty minutes in, Castaneda passed the ball to Sophomore - Amrylin Duhon, who switched the field to Junior - Julia Wolf. She continued switching the field by sending the ball out wide to Bernadac. She sent the ball forward to Verrett. She took a shot on goal, and it was once again saved by the goalie, but this time it bounced away from her. Aguilar was there and got a foot on it, but it went just wide. Two minutes later, Junior - Cate Shofner won the ball in the middle and fed the ball into Verrett, who took another shot which was saved. Finally with about 13 minutes to go, the Spartans demagnetized the goalies' hands and found the back of the net. Sola ended up with the ball out wide where she dribbled toward the goal. She set herself up nicely to fire off a shot that sailed over the hands of the Bobcat goalie to make the score SHS 3 - CFHS 0. The last 10 minutes of the game saw a few more great chances on goal by Hunter, Castaneda, and Bernadac, but the goalie once again came up with the saves. The final score of the game was SHS 3 - CFHS 0.

The girls' next games are Tuesday, February 4th vs. Cy Falls at Stratford High School and Friday, February 7th at Cy Ridge High School, both at 5:30 pm.