Coelho returns as ‘Balers rout Alvarez 4-0, take back sole
possession of first place
Hollister – Sophie Coelho returned to the lineup and a rejuvenated San Benito girls soccer team returned to form with a 4-0 win Tuesday at home against Alvarez.
“All the girls were healthier today,” said coach Mike Schurig, whose team played most of Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Gilroy without its top two scorers, Coelho and JC Clayton, because of illness.
While Clayton – who saw five minutes of action Saturday – was still out of the lineup, Coelho appeared to be operating at full-strength and punched in a pair of goals.
“Sophie bounced back real nicely,” Schurig said. “It was a nice warm-up for North Salinas.”
The win allowed the Haybalers to regain sole possession of first place after North Salinas fell tied 1-1 against Alisal. San Benito will face off on the road against the second-place Vikings (9-4-3, 5-2-2) at 3:30pm Thursday with a chance to put some distance between itself and the defending league champions.
Against Alvarez, San Benito dominated all 80 minutes of action, but through the midway point of the game only had one goal to show for its efforts.
That came in the 30th minute when Yaira Lizarraga delivered a through ball to Coelho, who easily beat the Eagles goalkeeper 1-on-1 for her 15th goal of the year.
“That feed up the middle by Yaira was perfect,” Schurig said.
In the second half, the ‘Balers took better advantage of their dominance. Five minutes in, Janessa Gillies sent a ball toward the middle of the field 40 yards out that Brittany Huth gained control of and beat the lone defender and fired a shot past the keeper for a 2-0 lead.
San Benito put the game away in the 60th on a corner kick when Rachel Maheu bent a shot perfectly into the upper right corner of the net.
“I love taking corner kicks; I’ve been working on them for four years,” Maheu said.
Coelho wrapped up the scoring in the 70th minute when she received a cross pass from Huth and knocked it in for her team-leading 16th tally.
For a team that was winless in league play last season, the ‘Balers are excited to be in their current position with a shot at a league title and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“Last year was really frustrating,” said Maheu, a junior. “Once we got our first couple of wins (this year) we knew nothing could stop us and we could go all the way and go to CCS.”
San Benito, which beat North Salinas 3-1 in the teams’ first matchup this season, will look to do the same this time around and shut down the Vikings’ dangerous Tannia Hernandez, who leads the area in scoring. Hernandez was held scoreless in the first meeting.
“We’ll do something similar,” Schurig said. “We’ll make sure Tannia is marked up. I think that we’ll be able to give them a good game.”
Schurig said he expects Clayton, whose second on the team with seven goals, to be back in action Thursday.
