For all the positives the Anzar girls’ soccer team accomplished
this past season, and there were many, they may be easy to overlook
following Wednesday’s convincing 6-0 loss to No. 5 Priory in the
opening round of the Central Coast Section Division III
Championships.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
For all the positives the Anzar girls’ soccer team accomplished this past season, and there were many, they may be easy to overlook following Wednesday’s convincing 6-0 loss to No. 5 Priory in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division III Championships.
A four-goal halftime lead, with three of those goals coming in the first 17 minutes of play, vaulted the visiting Panthers to their 12th win of the season in San Juan Bautista, as well as a second-round date with No. 4 Santa Catalina (13-4-1) on Saturday at San Jose’s Valley Christian High.
Follow Free Lance Sports on Twitter.
On the opposite end, the No. 12 Hawks (13-6-1) had difficulty stopping Priory’s Mariana Galvan, who scored four goals and one assist to eliminate Anzar from postseason play, and also had difficulty penetrating Priory’s side of the field to mount an offensive threat.
Senior forward Jessica Stofer noted Priory’s brand of keep-away on the defensive side — a tight, ball-possession game that prevented the Hawks from making their way into Priory’s end.
“It was super frustrating,” said Stofer, who, despite playing in her very first year of soccer, tied teammate Brianna Miltimore for a team-high in goals this past season with 11.
“They were super skilled,” she added.
For however discouraging it was, though, Wednesday’s CCS contest was seen as another building block for a program that is looking to put itself on the D-III map.
“They’re gonna move on and they’re gonna grow,” said senior forward/mid Lauren Bellone.
It was only the second time in school history Anzar had qualified to the postseason, and although it didn’t end the way anyone in San Juan Bautista had hoped — with a win —graduating players felt the initial postseason experience has been gained for those returning, and can now be properly built upon in the near future.
“They’ll be even better (next year) because they’re used to it,” said Bellone, who was one of a handful of seniors who played for Anzar as a freshman during the 2007-08 season, the first year the Hawks advanced to the playoffs.
“My freshman year we made it to CCS and now as seniors we made it to CCS,” she said. “That was quite an accomplishment.”
Still, Bellone felt, to end your prep career with a convincing loss leaves a sour taste.
Priory’s Galvan put the visitors on the board in the 6th minute off an assist by Eugenia Jernick, while goals by Darrah Shields (assisted by Galvan) and Sarah Zuckerman (assisted by Alyson Perna) came right away in the 14th and 17th minutes, respectively, staking the Panthers to an early lead.
Galvan then deposited her second goal in the 34th minute off an assist by Shields — a rocket from the 18 that found the back of the net on the left side.
“We started off nervous. I was nervous myself,” said Anzar head coach Carlos Flores, whose team had difficulty countering Priory’s constant attack.
Two more goals were tacked on in the second half by the Panthers, and both were off the right foot of Galvan. The junior scored in the 43rd minute off a free kick, then again off a corner kick by Shields.
“They played their best and that’s all I could have asked for,” Flores said of his squad. “Priory is a great team.”
While the Portola Valley school moves on to the Division III quarterfinals, Anzar will have to wait another year in search of its first postseason victory. The Hawks do finish with 13 wins — three more than the 2007-08 team — and champions of the Coastal Athletic League, however.
“We can say that we won our league, and that doesn’t happen often at Anzar,” said Bellone, who plans on trying out for the soccer team at Cal Poly next year.
“We had a good team and we improved so much,” she added.
Bellone is one of nine seniors on the Hawks this year, including Stofer, Marissa Carapinha, Hakima Hossainzadeh, Stephanie Lavarone, Brianna McCain, Sabrina Perez, Mayra Quezada and Nicki Seymour.
“For us, just making it to CCS was an accomplishment,” Flores said. “Now it’s seeing if we can keep it going and build toward next year.”
TEAM 1 2 F
PRIOR 4 2 6
ANZR 0 0 0
