San Benito ninth grader Sophie Coelho leads the Haybalers in
scoring this year with nine goals in six games
Hollister – At 98 pounds, San Benito freshman Sophie Coelho doesn’t appear to be a major force when she steps on the soccer field.
But catch a glimpse of the young forward in action and you can quickly see the type of impact she has made through the first 10 games of her high school career with the Haybalers.
“I’ve had hopes for other freshmen, but I didn’t anticipate what she’s done,” San Benito coach Mike Schurig said.
Coelho has provided an immediate spark with nine goals and two assists in the ‘Balers first 10 games, with four multi-goal games including a recent stretch of three-straight two-goal efforts.
“She’s been a force,” Schurig said.
For Coelho, the adjustment to playing with older girls has been the biggest difference for someone who began playing soccer at age 4 and already has several years of competitive club soccer under her belt.
“I think it’s a little more intense, especially going against girls that are 17 and 18 years old,” Coelho said. “I’m used to being one of the older girls.”
Coelho credits her teammates with helping make the transition to high school play easier.
“It’s been a pretty easy adjustment because of the girls on my team,” she said. “At first it was really intimidating. I was nervous to be around them. But they’re all super nice. They’re all there to support each other.”
While San Benito (5-3-2, 0-1-1) is still looking for its first Tri-County Athletic League win this season after a winless league campaign last year, it certainly is showing signs of growth.
The ‘Balers tied Gilroy 2-2 in their league opener – getting two goals from Coelho.
“Gilroy was the better team and we had a chance to win,” Schurig said.
San Benito also dropped a heartbreaker 1-0 to Notre Dame on Monday despite receiving its typical standout defensive performance.
A big part of the improvement has been the ability to finish offensively – whether it comes from Coelho or the rest of the supporting cast.
With the league schedule underway and more familiarity present with the opponents, teams have started to key on Coelho and Schurig expects that to continue.
“We’ve worked on finishing so everyone can finish,” he said. “We have a lot more than just Sophie. Teams are marking her. We can use that to our advantage so others can score.”
And San Benito’s scoring has been far from strictly centered on Coelho. Senior Brittany Huth is second on the team with three goals and has two assists. Janessa Gillies leads the way with five assists and also has a goal and Rachel Maheu has a pair of goals and an assist.
So while much of the attention is being draw to Coelho – and rightfully so – Schurig is confident that is will only help make the team more potent. He plans to switch some positions up at times and use more of a rotation to take away some predictability from the offense and make it tougher to defend.
“We’re going to mix it up,” he said, adding that Coelho could see time as a midfielder. “We’re going to make it harder to mark her.”
While the defense can do what it wants, Coelho proved in the Gilroy contest that she can still be a playmaker.
She garnered plenty of attention from Mustang defenders after scoring an early goal, but still was able to punch in a second tally.
Coelho recognizes that its only going to get tougher the more teams start to focus on her.
“It’s definitely harder because I can’t do the things I’m used to,” she said.
Her quick start has been enough to begin to draw comparisons to former San Benito star Jennifer Vandenberg, who tallied 22 goals as a freshman en route to an illustrious 132-goal career with the ‘Balers from 2001-05.
That may be some tough standards to try to live up to, but if Coelho keeps up her pace the parallels may be too tough to avoid.
