GILROY — The Christopher field hockey team celebrated much more than a win following Friday’s game.
The Cougars honored their 12 seniors and coach Lia Peterson who has coached them for their entire high school career. The underclassmen shared stories about their senior classmates and coach as well as hugs, laughs and even a few tears. They even gave flowers to the visiting Monterey’s seniors following their 3-0 win in the regular season finale.
“It was a great way to end the season,” Peterson said. “It’s been an amazing season and probably kind of shocking in some ways. They had some really, really good games against some really tough teams and they had some not so good games and it worked out.
“The girls are probably what kept it going. They have an amazing attitude, they got along and they played their hearts out every game.”
Senior Kristen Flores scored the final goal for Christopher with under two minutes left in the game. That goal was the icing on the cake for Flores and she said she was happy she was able to score in her final home game.
“It felt really good to score the last goal. I’m just really proud of my teammates and I’m glad I played with them,” Flores said. “It was really special for all our families to be here and everyone is here supporting us. Our team is really unified and it’s fun to be here all together.”
Christopher got off to a slow start and the game was scoreless at halftime. Junior Sherelle Butler changed all that with a goal in the 34th minute to put the team up 1-0.
The Cougars were able to score again in the 45th minute off the stick of Taylor Loesch despite being down three players due to penalties.
“We’re kind of a second half team. It takes them a little while to get their bearings, but they figured it out,” Peterson said. “We started with all of our seniors and we ended with all of our seniors. … Once we started rotating people in and they got comfortable again, then we were able to finish off that second half. It worked out really well.”
Christopher finishes the regular season with a 13-1-4 overall record and 11-2-1 in the Mt. Hamilton B-League. Seedings for the Central Coast Section playoffs will be determined Monday and a schedule is expected to be released.
Check back here for updates on Christopher’s playoff schedule.
