Eagles lose another goalie
Undefeated Jaguars roll on, 6-0
The undefeated, untied, and unscored upon Cooperative girls varsity soccer team racked up its third decisive win of the season, 6-0, over Christian Learning Tuesday on their home field.
Jaguar eighth grader Tania Landivar added four goals to her league-leading season total. Aldana Roda and Alexia Handal also scored for the Jaguars, who have now defeated each of the other teams in the league, all by wide margins.
The Jaguars led at the half two to nothing on two early Landivar goals, but the game was still competitive well into the second half when Christian Learning goalie Alejandra Valencia fell awkwardly on her left hip while she and Jaguar seventh grader Giovanna Varalta scrambled for the ball. Valencia had to be assisted from the field and taken by car to a hospital. The latest word, however, is that her injury is not serious, and she will probably be able to return to action.
Earlier this season Christian Learning had lost its first string goalie, Whitney Belovicz, when she dislocated her thumb while making a save. After Valencia's injury the Eagles had to bring in a junior varsity player with little goalie experience.
The new goalie was immediately put to the test as Landivar ran underneath a long, downfield pass right in front of the goal and whacked the ball into the net with her left foot, without missing a stride, making the score 3-0.
Minutes later Handal unleashed her high, bouncing shot that hopped over the new goalie's head and into the goal, making it 4-0.
Roda's goal involved an adroit piece of team play between her and Landivar. Landivar had the ball in front of the goal inside the penalty box, but found her path blocked by defenders. Landivar whirled and passed the ball back to Roda, who was well outside the penalty box, but who then unleashed a tremendous kick that skipped into the left hand side of the net on one bounce.
The Jaguar defense had little trouble containing the Eagle attack, which clearly missed the now-graduated offensive stars of last year, until the last minutes of the game. At that point the Eagles unleashed a comprehensive attack on the Jaguar goal that included a pair of corner kicks, but could not quite find the right scoring combination.
Then Landivar put the icing on the Jaguar cake as she took the ball at midfield, dribbled through the Eagle defense and scored the final goal just as time expired, making the score 6-0.
Griffins hit goal post six times
Lady Knights hang on for 1-0 win
The Cambridge varsity girls soccer team made a single piece of intrepid derring-do by ninth grader Camila Johnson stand up for a 1-0 victory over International at the Griffins' field Tuesday.
It was the first victory for the Cambridge girls since 2006, when they were led by their current coach, Karla Ross. They did have two ties last year.
Tthe victory did not come without a great deal of angst for both coach and team. Ross juggled her line-up after Johnson's goal so as to have four fullbacks, but International continued to attack relentlessly, hitting the goal posts an estimated six times during the rest of the game. "But thank God none of them went in," said Ross.
To give the Cambridge team credit, it also had two balls hit the crossbar.
Johnson's goal was a thing of beauty. Johnson, an incredibly durable player who roves as she wishes in both ends of the field, picked up the ball in her defensive end. She then dribbed down the left-hand side of the field to the corner, turned right, and continued dribbling the ball past two International defenders and virtually into the goal.
The game started slowly, with both teams clearly feeling the effects of the long layoff. However, International seemed the stronger team. Its kicks were carrying further, and its forwards had frequent scoring opportunities that they couldn't quite convert into goals.
About halfway through the half, however, Johnson took off on her foray, after which Cambridge went into its four-fullback "prevent defense," which slowed but did not shut off the International offensive effort. "They just kept attacking," conceded Ross.
