Girls Soccer

Guest Article: Eagles Win Both JV and Varsity Games over Knights

By Paul Smith

Eagle Sandi Wilcke and Knight
Isadora Zagini battle for the ball.
Picture by Julia Boldt

            The football season for the Lady Knight’s Varsity and Junior Varsity (JV) teams has not started out very well. Their first game of the season, the Knights traveled over to Santa Cruz Cooperative School (SCCS) to play against the girl’s Jaguars JV and Varsity teams. The SCCS girls’ football teams are well known for their ability to do well in football and win games.  The Knights JV girl’s team kicked off first at 15:30. From the very beginning, it was obvious that the Jaguars were better prepared. The JV Jaguars beat the Knights 4-0. The Knights played hard in their first game, but the Jaguars played harder. The Knights Varsity girls had an even tougher time playing against the Jaguars. The Jaguars scored seven goals, while the Knights were unable to get any points on the board.

            Yesterday on Tuesday the 6th, both Cambridge College (CC) and Christian Learning Center (CLC) traveled to Santa Cruz International School (SCIS) to play the second game of the season. The JV Knights appeared to be bigger, and stronger than the JV Eagles, and most would have probably picked the Knights to win the game. The young Eagle girls from CLC fought hard throughout the game and beat the JV Knights 3-0. The Knights came close to scoring when they were awarded a penalty kick. The kick was blocked by the Eagle’s goalkeeper, but the ball bounced back to one of the Knights who was able to kick the ball at the goal again…but the ball bounced off the right goal post. Again the ball was recovered and kicked towards the Eagle’s goal by the Knights. This time the ball rolled a few centimeters wide from being a goal. The good news was that the Knight’s had teammate Dianny Hollweg celebrating a birthday and the JV girls were treated to birthday cake and soda after their game.

Picture by Julia Boldt

            The girl’s Varsity soccer match was an exciting one. Both teams did not have a lot of players on their team and only had two or three players to use in case of fatigue or injury. Several JV girls were added to the Varsity team so that there were sufficient players on the team. One of the Knight’s JV players filling in for the missing Varsity players was goalkeeper Barbara Black. Barbara, who is only a 6th grader, impressed the older Varsity girls with great play in goal as the fill-in goalkeeper. The Eagles Varsity team also found a handful of talented JV girls to play on the Varsity team. The Varsity Eagles and Knights played hard throughout the game. The Eagles scored first in the 2nd half. Not long afterwards, Cambridge College was awarded a penalty kick due to a handball. The Knight’s Nadia Rocco was able to power the shot past the Eagle’s goalkeeper and into the net to tie the game 1-1 late in the game. It almost looked like the game would end and have to be decided by penalty kicks, but the Eagles were able to score another goal late in the game which ended up giving the Eagles a 2-1 win over the Varsity Lady Knights. The Varsity girls were not given cake or soda to help comfort them after their last minute loss. Congratulations to both the Eagles and Knights girls for playing great games of football and for the hard work and effort. For the Knights Varsity and JV teams, the losses keep the girls from getting their first win of the season.

Isadora Zagini and Nadia Rocco attempt to stop Eagle
Luciana Beams.
Picture by Julia Boldt

The Knights’ next game will be played on September 13th against Santa Cruz International School. Will game 3 be the game that the JV and/or Varsity girls gain their first win of the season? We will find out on the 13th.

(This year, both volleyball and football games are played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays are girl’s JV and Varsity football, along with boy’s JV and Varsity volleyball. Thursdays it is boy’s JV and Varsity soccer, and girl’s JV and Varsity volleyball. All games will be held at either Santa Cruz International School or Santa Cruz Cooperative School. JV games usually start at 15:30, and Varsity games are started shortly after the conclusion of the JV games.)

 Varsity Jaguars Girls Show Their Power 8-0

By Sofía Sotelo, SCCS

Photo by Jonatan Muñoz.

      The Jaguar girls demonstrated they have what it takes once again this year to be the leaders of the League with a stunning 8-0 win over International on the Cooperative field Tuesday afternoon.

       The two winning teams of last week, the Griffins (who beat the Eagles 5-0) and the Jaguars (who beat the Knights 7-0) confronted one another, and the Jaguars quickly showed their dominance by taking a 3-0 lead in the first half. Before the game was over Landivar would have three goals and her fellow forward Fernanda Vaca Diaz would have four. Giovanna Varalta also scored.

       The pre-season forecasts the Griffins had been the team considered to have the best chance of ending the Jaguars winning streak, which goes back to 2007, and possibly even halting the string of championships Cooperative has amassed, going back to the inception of the League in 2005. The Griffins had practiced hard, and arrived at the game in high spirits.  

       And for a little while it looked like the game might be a real battle.

        Landivar scored the first goal for the Jaguars after 10 minutes of play. But then the Griffins, who were still hopeful they could retake control of the game, almost tied it up when Jaguar goalie Karla Aguilera couldn’t control the ball in the penalty area and it rolled loose. However, Cooperative defender Carla Limpias reached the ball before Griffin Maria Victoria Gutierrez, and whacked the ball away from the danger zone.

       The Jaguars moved further ahead when Vaca Diez scored the second and third Jaguar goals of the first half.

      There were few other scoring opportunities in the first half. The International offense struggled on several occasions to break through the right side of the Jaguar defense, covered by Ana Paula Peredo, and got off three shots on goal, but all three missed.

     The Jaguars for their part had four missed shots in the first half, including one corner, but dominated play, maintaining possession of the ball about 80 percent of the time.

        The Jaguar girls continued to dominate the game in the second half and Vaca Diez scored her third goal when she and teammates Paulina Aguirre and Giovanna Varalta broke through the Griffin defense.

        The  Jaguars struck again five minutes later when Varalta outran  the International defense and scored, making the score 5-0.

        Griffin Natalia Davila looked like she was going to get a chance to score and avoid a shutout, but the Jaguar defense remained tenacious.

      The Griffin girls seemed to accept their defeat when ten minutes later, Vaca Diez scored a fourth time, making it 6-0.

        The Jaguars weren’t, however, quite finished. Landivar scored two goals in two minutes near the end of the game, giving her a hat trick, and making the final score 8-0 in favor of the now league-leading Lady Jaguars.

Junior Jaguars and Griffins Deadlock 2-2

By Manuel Saavedra, SCCS

               The Cooperative girls JV soccer team and International tied after a hard-fought game which finished 2-2 on Tuesday afternoon in the Jaguars’ home field. In the penalty shoot-out, the Cooperative girls defeated the Griffins in a close 4-3 mini-contest.

               All four goals in regulation time were scored in the second half, after a first half that was a defensive stalemate.

            In the first half, the Jaguar offense wasn’t able to break through the Griffin defense, although at some moments the Cooperative girls trespassed blatantly into the Griffin zone. However, International’s well focused goalkeeper couldn’t be overwhelmed.

            In the second half, it seemed as if the game had started all over again in a different spirit.  Both teams started demonstrating their offensive skills more aggressively. The fans of both teams were eager to celebrate a goal and minutes after the start of the second half, Paula Sakuma gave the Jaguar fans an opportunity to do so.

             She sent an accurate pass that perfectly set up Michelle Lederman who scored by lightly tapping the ball into the right side of the goal, giving the Jaguars a 1-0 lead.

             Many Jaguar fans thought this would discourage the Griffins, but instead the Griffins improved. They started to attack through the right side of the field, but the Jaguar defense at first was organized enough to handle the attack.

        The game became more exciting, and after several opportunities near the goal the talented 6th grade Griffin, Sofia Sciaroni, was able to surprise the defense with a quick reverse of direction and scored to tie the game at 1-1. 

            The game was now about to finish, but no one wanted to leave with a tie, so the teams kept attacking each other. A corner kick sent by the Jaguars confused the Griffins defense and produced a collision between a defender and the goalie that facilitated Lederman’s second score, putting the Jaguars ahead again, 2-1.

            But in the closing seconds the Griffins launched yet another counter-attack that left their captain, Fernanda Gutierrez alone in front of the goal. She salvaged a tie for the Griffins by scoring with a hard-driven kick. 

            The game went on to penalties where the Jaguars gained the extra point in the standings by scoring all four of their penalties, while the Griffins were off target on two. It wasn’t necessary for the Jaguars to take their fifth shot.