Jaguars beat Griffins 2-0 to gain finals
The Cooperative girls junior varsity soccer team defeated International Tuesday on their home field on the strength of two first half goals off the foot of Giovanna Varalta.
The win sets up an interesting championship match Thursday between Cooperative and Christian Learning, two teams who have battled to ties in their two previous meetings this year.
Christian Learning won the post game penalty shootouts in both cases, entitling them to two extra points in the standings, and finished first in the League, giving them a bye into the championship game.
Varalta, who was coming back to action after having been sidelined with a foot injury, did not start the game, but in less than a minute after she entered the action she put Cooperative ahead 1-0 with a booming shot from the center of the field from about 20 meters out.
She added her second goal a short while later when she veered left, then right to avoid Griffin defenders, and as she fell backwards got off a shot that hit the near post and caromed into the goal.
That concluded the scoring for the day, though early in the second half International seemed to be on the comeback trail. First Griffin Sofia Sciaroni went one-on-one with Jaguar goalie Fabiana Andrade, but Andrade won that one.
The Griffins were back in front of the Jaguar goal a short while later as Fabiana Zelada unleashed a near miss.
Next Natalia Johnson uncorked a looper that landed at the base of the right goalpost and bounced back out onto the field.
Then Maria Fernanda Gutierrez bounced a shot off Andrade and immediately collided with the goalkeeper. The Griffin cause might have been better served if Gutierrez had pursued the rebound instead of stopping to be sure Andrade was all right.
At this point, about halfway through the second half, the International attack seemed to lose force and momentum switched back to the Jaguars. Varalta came very close to getting a hat trick, but was thwarted by International goalkeeper Katherin Ceballos, who played well all afternoon.
The Jaguars had another golden opportunity as a ball bounced merrily across the mouth of the momentarily undefended Griffin goal, but no one could get there to kick it in.
The line-up for the winning Jaguars was Samatha Benett, Bianca Marinkovic, Jessica Maureira, Andrade, Michelle Lederman, Maureen Harrison, Cassandra Morales, Marcela Netzlaff, Giuliana Varalta, Giovanna Varalta, Megumi Kamiya, Andrea Chavez, and Maria Fernanda Flores.
For the Griffins: Ceballos, Nicole Sinclair, Micaela Pedraza, Michelle Pedraza, johnson, Angela Gagliardi, Zelada, Pamela Suarez, Gutierrez, Maria Isabel Alexander, Carolina Aguilera, Mariana Roca, Antonia Maggi, Sciaroni, and Carolina Teixeira.
