Last year, the San Benito girls soccer team lost twice to
Sobrato while going winless in Tri-Country Athletic League
play.
San Mateo – Last year, the San Benito girls soccer team lost twice to Sobrato while going winless in Tri-Country Athletic League play.
That’s enough to make the ‘Balers feel pretty good about their start to this season as they improved to 3-1-1 with a 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs in the Burlingame Thanksgiving Invitational at San Mateo High on Friday.
“They beat us solidly in one game and we beat ourselves in the other,” coach Mike Schurig said about last year’s losses, adding that this win gives the team confidence because they beat a team that finished ahead of it in last year’s TCAL standings.
“I felt we matched up pretty well against them,” Schurig said. “(Sobrato’s) a good team, they have an excellent goalkeeper (Katrina Olson).”
Friday’s matchup was also a preview of the team’s non-league showdown Thursday against Sobrato, which now plays in the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
“Now we’ve got to play them the same way again Thursday,” Schurig said.
It didn’t take long for the ‘Balers to get on the board. In the fourth minute, Janessa Gillies lobbed a high shot that had a perfect trajectory and got over the head of Olson and into the net for a 1-0 lead.
But the Bulldogs, who are 1-2-1 on the season, answered back when Katie Alton fired a shot into the back of the net in the 16th minute to tie the game up and it stayed that way through the end of the half.
Alton nearly gave Sobrato a lead early in the second half, when she fired a loose ball off the right post.
San Benito freshman Sophie Coelho, who has three goals on the early season, proved to make the difference in producing the winning goal by drawing a penalty shot in the 11th minute of the second half.
Senior captain Brittany Huth took the shot and rolled the ball to the right corner and into the net for the game-wining goal.
“It’s definitely a stepping stone for us,” first-year Sobrato coach Stephanie Pearson said of the tournament, where the Bulldogs when 0-2-1. “There’s a lot of kinks we need to work out.”
