Girls’ soccer strong heading into league play
Things were going right for the San Benito girls soccer team
just 80 minutes into their season on Nov. 12 when they dispatched
Santa Catalina 7-1, including a fire-at-will six-goal second
half.
Since then, eight games and six more wins.
Girls’ soccer strong heading into league play
Things were going right for the San Benito girls soccer team just 80 minutes into their season on Nov. 12 when they dispatched Santa Catalina 7-1, including a fire-at-will six-goal second half.
Since then, eight games and six more wins.
It’s been a red-hot start for the Lady Balers, which have seemingly picked up where they left off last season – and then some – jumping out to an impressive 7-1-1 record to open their 2008-09 campaign.
Early-season injuries have certainly hampered the first month of play, but with a seasoned yet youthful squad returning, San Benito has found a way to rise above the adverse conditions. For the most part, they’ve been there before.
Of the 20 members on the varsity roster, 12 played on the team last year.
“We have a lot of talent on the team and it’s coming together nicely,” junior forward Sophie Coelho said. “We’ve been working pretty hard, we’re still working hard, but we’ve been working pretty hard up to this point to get here and I think it’s paying off right now.
“It’s nice to have a big part of the team come back because we know how to play with each other well.”
New coach Ben Alvarez, who previously coached the boys soccer team and who replaces Mike Schurig, isn’t surprised at all by the team’s fast start, which includes a first-place finish at the Watsonville Turkey Tournament.
Alvarez developed the team’s conditioning early on, and frequently conducted drills with no soccer ball.
“When we got closer to November 1, I pretty much knew where my strength was,” Alvarez said. “I knew that we were gonna be strong.”
After going 11-6-3 last season and qualifying for the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs for the second straight year – they lost to No. 6 Woodside 8-1 in the first round – San Benito returned the bulk of its roster, especially in the middle of the field.
Anchored by senior JC Clayton and sophomore Nicole Yost on defense, as well as Emily Key in net, the Lady Balers returned last year’s leading scorer in Coelho (17 goals) and this year’s leading scorer in sophomore Hannah Cobb (11 goals through nine games).
Coupled with forwards Daniela Ocampo and Yaira Lizarraga, as well as midfielders Samantha Moreno and Sara Yamasaki, and Alvarez has quite the core to throw at opposing teams.
“My center. My midfield is very strong,” Alvarez said. “I have so much strength there that I can relax on the back a little bit.
“And if we can gain control of the mid, the rest kind of just falls into place. We’re running a diamond shape in the middle, and it’s working for us very well.”
Although San Benito has seen Clayton, Yost, Moreno, Jessica Castro and Christiana Perez suffer through injuries in the early going, Alvarez’ dedication to the middle, as well as his continuous change of attack throughout the game – from the left to the right – has kept opposing teams guessing.
It will all likely be in effect on Friday when San Benito hosts Notre Dame in their Tri-County Athletic League opener at 3:30 p.m.
Despite San Benito’s fast start, though, gauging the league is somewhat difficult. Alisal (4-1-2), Everett Alvarez (5-2), North Salinas (6-1-1) and Salinas (5-1) have all opened up the season with impressive records.
And Gilroy, even at 2-1-2, is still talented enough to win a third straight TCAL title, and is probably favored until another team can knock them off.
“We want to win them all, but we’re not gonna get overconfident that we’re gonna beat everyone,” Cobb said. “Gilroy is a big threat. We want to beat them because we haven’t in a while.
“They’re our rivals. We’re always trying to beat them … I think we can do it because we have a very strong team this year.”
