Varsity Girls Soccer - August 30th

Griffins Dominate Eagles 5-0
By Trevor Reed, SCCLC

The International Varsity girls soccer team shot off to a strong start this season with a 5-0 win over the Eagles in a game played at the International field on Tuesday.

A Griffin free kick passes over the head of the Eagle
goalie. Photo by Jonatan Muñoz

            From the beginning the game was very aggressive. Both teams fought for every loose ball, hoping to score the first goal. The Eagles managed to get the first good chance as a Griffin defender deflected an Eagle pass towards her own goal, but it was blocked by the goalie. The game settled down to a more manageable pace, and the Griffins took full advantage of the change. Griffin forward Natalia Davila took a high shot from far out away from the goal, and it soared over the fingertips of the Eagle goalie. The Eagles tried to fire back with a goal of their own, but a well-placed shot by forward Mariela Salinas was denied entrance to the goal by the Griffin goalie. The Griffins displayed some good passing even within the Eagle goalie box, but were unable to score again for some time. Finally, Davila broke the silence again with a high free kick that again was just out of the Eagle goalie’s reach. The Griffin defense was able to stop the attacks by Salinas and Abby Phillips for the rest of the half, and the score stood at 2-0 when the whistle sounded.

Griffin Natalia Davila celebrates after
achieving a hat trick.
Photo by Jonatan Muñoz

            In the second half, the Griffins continued to put pressure on the Eagle defense, and it paid off as Davila scored yet another goal that curved into the goal from the right side. Eagle Emily Ordoñez was able to break past the Griffin defense with the ball, but her final shot was expertly blocked once again by the Griffin goalie. Natalia Davila continued to keep the Eagle defense busy, and one of her passes was deflected into the Eagle goal, bringing the score to 4-0. Not long after, Griffin Carolina Baldivieso was able to put the ball in the Eagle net once again, building the Griffin lead up to five points. Eagle Mariela Salinas had another close shot, but it was barely saved, and the Eagle team had no chance for redemption left. In the closing minutes of the game, both teams were visibly tired, taking lazy shots from far out. The Griffin team will definitely try to play as well as they did today in their game next week, but the Eagles still need some practice if they wish to be serious contenders in the league championships in October.

Jaguar Girls Swamp Knights 7-0

By Manuel Saavedra, SCCS

The Cooperative girls varsity soccer team started the season on the right foot by defeating Cambridge on a Tuesday afternoon in the Jaguar’s home field. With a small crowd of fans from both sides, the Jaguars won 7-0, showing the effort and dedication the girls are putting into each practice to reach the goal of the season, which is to become the undefeated champions for the fourth year in a row.

The game started out slow. The Jaguars weren’t able to score due to the solid defense the Knights had. The fans were desperate to shout and celebrate the first goal of the season, and finally Jaguar forward Tania Landivar opened the scoring for the Jaguars.

Once Landivar scored, the Knights started to lose their concentration and the Jaguars became more confident, which allowed them to play calmly, searching for(and finding) spaces in which they could control the ball. Not long after the first goal, thanks to remarkable cooperation between the Jaguar attackers, Landivar experienced the joy of scoring once more.

The Knight’s defenses were now having a tough time trying to stop the Jaguars from trespassing within the territory in front of their goal. To seal the deal in the first half, Fernanda Vaca Diez, a player who had mainly been assisting other players with precise passes, scored one for herself into the left side of the goal after all the other players had crowded into the middle of the field, leaving her uncovered.

In the second half, the Jaguars started playing more freely with their three goal lead. Suddenly, Vaca Diez appeared near the goal and scored again, making a Cambridge comeback even near impossible. A short while later, with another noteworthy play Vaca Diez scored again making it 5-0 for the Jaguars, and giving her a hat trick.

Knights and Jaguars gather around the ball near the
Griffin goal, all hoping to get a foot on it.
Photo by Julia Boldt

After realizing the game wasn’t going to change much, Coach Rolando Cabrera started sending other players in, so that the starters got to rest for the next game against the rival Griffins. The substitutes showed they were ready to play.

Tenth-grader Giovanna Varalta, an outstanding ex-JV star who had been bothered by a foot injury last year, used her head to score on an accurate corner kick thrown by Tania Landivar. At the end of the game, Paola Querejazu scored the seventh goal after a poorly placed Knight rebound.

The game finished 7-0, which left the Jaguars with smiles on their faces and the Knights not as happy as they realized how far they had to go to challenge for the championship. But not everything was negative for the Knights. In the past two years Cambridge had lost 9-0 and 11-0 to Cooperative, so they could claim to be making a slight improvement.

In fact some Jaguars thought Cambridge had put up a stronger fight than they expected. “We may have underestimated them,” said Jaguar star Landivar. “They were a lot better than we thought."