As snow flurries fell and melted away once touching ground, so
too did the Gilroy High girls soccer team’s season meet its end in
a heart-pounding match that left little to the imagination.
As snow flurries fell and melted away once touching ground, so too did the Gilroy High girls soccer team’s season meet its end in a heart-pounding match that left little to the imagination.
The second-seeded Mustangs and No. 7 Woodside engaged in 100 minutes of soccer, which proved to be an insufficient amount.
The Wildcats did one better than the Mustangs in a winner-take-all penalty kick shootout, claiming a 1-1 (5-4) victory in Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinal action Saturday in Gilroy.
“It’s nice to be on this end but I feel for Gilroy, they are a fantastic team,” Woodside head coach Jose Navarrete said. “They are as good as advertised, and better.”
Soccer can be cruel sometimes, especially in the playoffs.
Sophomore Maggie Trigo spent the second half of Saturday’s tilt mirroring Woodside’s speedy forward Taylor Duffner.
The senior terrorized the Mustangs in the first half, scoring the equalizer in 32nd minute, with chances for more occurring at an alarming rate.
But Trigo drew the assignment of marking Duffner in the second half and contained her as much as possible, in some ways keeping the Mustangs in the game.
“Maggie did such a great job of controlling (Duffner) in the second half. We made that adjustment.” GHS head coach Jose Hernandez said moments after delivering his final postgame talk of the season.
The tightly contested playoff tilt extended two 10-minute overtimes past the regulation 80 minutes and came down to penalty kicks. The Wildcats converted their first five shots, the Mustangs their initial four. Trigo’s turn, she converts and the penalty kick round continues. A miss and the Mustangs’ season is finished. A pressure-packed situation for any player.
A cool, calm and collected midfielder, Trigo’s demeanor never wavered as she approached the ball. However, her shot bounced off the right post, her hands immediately covered her face as the Wildcats gathered around their goalie in celebration.
“That’s the hard part right now,” Hernandez said. “We told (Maggie) she kept us in the game. But it is what it is.”
The game concluded with an unkind twist of fate for the home team, but made for an appropriate ending after what occurred during the hour-and-a-half worth of soccer that preceded it.
“Today I witnessed the ultimate competition where every kid, every minute, gave everything they had. And its a shame that there had to be a loser,” Navarrete said.
Utilizing their precision in the midfield and constant ball movement, the Mustangs dictated much of the play during the initial portion of the first half.
“I thought you saw a lot more combination plays today,” Hernandez said. “We did a great job of moving the ball side to side. The girls did a great job, they were focused and ready to go.” A pair of Tri-County Athletic League Most Valuable Players combined for an early GHS advantage. Senior Katelyn Nebesnick, last season league MVP who had only played two minutes the entire season because of a knee injury, put the Mustangs up 1-0 in the 16th minute, punctuating well-delivered assist from this season’s recipient Taylor Slattery.
The Momentum shifted a bit in favor of the Wildcats toward the end of the first half and Duffner, who had been knocking on the door, left a pair of defenders in her wake starting at about the 30-yard line and booted home the game-tying goal.
“She really helps us,” Navarrete said.
Both teams had a bundle of opportunities to earn what ended up being an elusive game-winner. Gilroy’s Cynthia Sanchez fired wide on two golden chances midway through the second and Duffner did the same on Woodside’s end.
“We missed a few and they did as well,” Hernandez said.
Though their playoff run fell short of its intended destination the Mustangs are TCAL champions – five years running – the received the highest seed in program history and their two top scorers will be juniors next season.
View more photos of the Gilroy Girls Soccer Quarterfinals at our
