The Flash won two games by just a goal last weekend despite
loosing star player Alison Wan for the next three weeks to a knee
injury.
Competitive League
Girls 16U
The Flash won two games by just a goal last weekend despite loosing star player Alison Wan for the next three weeks to a knee injury.
On Saturday, the Peninsula Mystique fought hard at De Anza’s home field in Cupertino. Brittany Barnes broke through the Mystique’s defense and exploited their goalie’s indecision to knock the ball into the side of the net. Kelly Logan scored a second goal with a lifted shot to the far post to end the half.
Barnes put in her second goal in the second half to give the home team a 3-0 lead. A missed Flash kick and a great play by the Mystique forward made the score 3-1. Five minutes later, a ball up the middle was kicked away by the Flash’s goalie Melanie Regan. But the Mystique got the rebound to make the score 3-2.
With 15 minutes remaining, Cayla Derry was tackled from behind. Kelly Logan took the penalty kick from 12 yards out, but the goalie saved it.
Sunday game’s against the Flames in Aptos was a little cooler. From the opening kickoff, Barnes and Nicole Hovey played one-touch soccer. For the next 20 minutes, the Flash peppered the Flames goalie, who made save after save.
This game was the first that the Flash played against an offside trap. In the first half, Derry, Barnes and Hovey were stopped at least seven times. In the second half, Logan, Trish Dunwoodie, Sarah Whitling and Duck Sato received balls and immediately sent them to opposite corner flags.
Twenty minutes into the second half, from the middle of a scramble, Barnes found the net to give the flash a 1-0 win.
Boys 14U
Stingrays 1, Inter 1
The Orchard Valley U14 Boys’ Class I soccer club traveled to Aptos this past Saturday and ended up in a 1-1 tie with the SCC Inter.
Despite the Inter controlling play in the first half, the Stingrays scored what looked to be the opening goal in the first few minutes. Left midfielder Noel Vera put a ball in on a cross from Danny Nelson, but offsides was called. Undeterred, the Stingrays scored a legitimate goal on their second shot of the half, as Murilo Almeida headed in Ricardo Plata’s corner kick. Stingrays Bryan Faulk, Almeida, Plata and Gerardo Murillo each had great opportunities to score. Stingrays’ goalkeeper Kevin Grove made 20 saves on the day, and almost earned a shutout until the Inter scored the tying goal with just two minutes to play.
Girls 11U
The Fury traveled to Los Gatos to meet the Wildfire on Sunday. Opening the first half, Lauren Hunsaker made a perfect lead pass to Lauren Schmidt, who just missed a goal just outside the left post. Emily Mandel made a great mid-field block and turned back the oncoming Wildfire.
Lauren Schmidt had another shot barely tipped away by the outstretched dive of the Wildfire goalie. Alex Maldonado had a near hit on goal just outside the left post. Allison Troini made 14 saves, including one Wildfire shot that bounced over her head, saving the goal by making a catch while facing the net. Aubrey Young nearly scored on a breakaway. Allysa Drake made a single handed defensive block and save.
The second half was a continuation of the defensive tone of the game. Mika Matsumoto made several stops and pinpoint passes to other fine Fury midfielders including Veronica Lane and Nicole Cheim.
Girls 10U
Toros 4, Palo Alto Blue 0
The Toro’s offense was unstoppable with solid defense played by Dani Hemeon and Breanna Rose.
“All of our girls were quick to the ball today; it was great,” said assistant coach Bill Cambra.
During the first half, Jennae Cambra scored from the left side with a beautiful assist from Megan Rauschnot. Shortly after, Katelyn Nebesnick passed the ball down to Cambra, who crossed it in front of the goal. Rauschnot was positioned perfectly to pop it into the right corner of the goal. First-half goalie Chelsea Hill and second-half goalie Holly Dunwoodie made several great saves to prevent the Palo Alto Blue from scoring.
The strong defensive play by the Toros midfielders Kirsten Doting and Sarina Sandoval provided additional scoring chances. Cambra and Rauschnot added goals in the second half.
Boys 9U
A strong team effort resulted in a 5-1 win for the Quakes against the Jaguars at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex on Saturday. The Quakes were on the attack early and controlled the ball for most of the first half while not allowing a shot on goal.
Christian Ramirez started off the Quakes attack with some nice dribbling moves around the Jaguars defense and a shot on the Jaguars goalkeeper. Jonathan De Leon opened the scoring for the Quakes and then nicely set up two goals by Cristian Manzo, who played an outstanding all-around game both on offense and defense.
The Quakes reliable middle defenders, Dwight Payne and Chris Nojadera, showed off some nice offensive moves of their own while completely shutting down the forward attacking Jaguars.
In the second half, Vincent Czeropski scored early on a nice break-away for the Quakes to make it 4-0 and added another goal late in the game to put the game out of reach for the
Jaguars. Luke Schmidt displayed good ball handling skills by getting past the Jaguars defenders and setting up the Quakes goals. Carlos Herrera got the win in goal for the Quakes.
The Quakes beat the Alpine Menlo team from Woodside on Sunday at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex by a score of 5-1.
Vincent Czeropski opened the scoring for the Quakes on a nice feed pass in the middle from Alex Allaert for the only score in the first half. The Quakes defense, on strong play by Miller Menzie, turned back all of the offensive attacks by the Alpine Menlo team.
The Quakes broke the game open in the second half on goals by Cristian Manzo, Jonathan De Leon and Christian Ramirez blasted a shot from the right side past the Alpine Menlo keeper to make it 4-0. Ramirez continued to put pressure on the Alpine defense and goalkeeper, which allowed Czeropski to score his second goal of the game to make the score 5-1.
Fancy footwork by forwards Tanner Holland and Luke Schmidt allowed the Quakes to control the ball throughout most of the second half, while the hard working Quakes team defense allowed only three shots on goal for the second game in a row.
Thunder 3, Dragons 3
Blue Thunder continued their strength on the field both in defense and offense. Nick Blocker and Conner Porzio both had strong games at goalie. Bradley Cachopo played strong defense while David Molyneux made a long, high kick scoring the first goal. Austin Chenoweth scored two goals.
Raging Dragons showed their footwork with Ray Bagarino handling the ball. He also had a high kick to score a goal. Eric Tracy had some great stops at defense, keeping the ball out of Blue Thunder’s scoring territory.
Sharks 2 – Dolphins 1
Despite great team work and an early goal by Shannon Rauschnot, the Dolphins were not able to defeat the Sharks.
Madison Kline led the defense with some key plays and kept the Sharks at bay in the second half. Grace Georgi’s formidable presence in goal during the second half insured that the Sharks did not add any more points to the scoreboard.
Girls 9U
The Orchard Valley Storm traveled to Sunnyvale on Saturday to challenge the Sunnyvale Roadrunners. The Storm pressured the Roadrunners throughout the first half. Hailey Hamilton had two shots on goal
that went just wide of the net. The Storm finally broke through when Amber Thomas made a nice pass up the right side to Jada Williams. Williams then cut back inside and blasted a shot into the far corner of
the goal for a 1-0 half-time lead.
The Storm took control of the game in the second half when Taylor Slattery, who played a great all around game, scored from her right midfield position. Sydney Barker and Megan Nebesnick both had great
shots that were denied by the Roadrunner keeper. Colby Carson then scored a pair goals to ice the game for the Storm.
The excitement for this game had been building for weeks. Both teams came into the game undefeated and tied for first place. The sideline was overflowing with fans cheering for both teams. The Chillipeppers controlled the game in the early going and scored mid-way through the first half to take a 1-0 lead. The Storm responded when Taylor Slattery burst down the right side and fired a hard shot towards the left post. The Chillipepper keeper deflected the ball, but Colby Carson crashed the net and punched in the tying goal.
The Peppers took a 2-1 lead in the late stages of the second half. The Storm charged right back on the offensive. The Peppers attempted a long clear from their end that Amber Thomas stepped in front of and headed to Taylor Slattery. Slattery pushed the ball up to Kaylana Mau, who crossed it to Janessa Garcia for the dramatic tying goal.
Due to injuries, the Storm was forced to play to key game short-handed. Several Storm players had to play the entire game. Rebekah Inouye, Sydney Barker and Tula Urban were spectacular in the midfield and on the back line.
