GILROY – Knocking down one obstacle only leads straight to
another one, and the two wins thus far by the Gilroy High field
hockey team in the Central Coast Section playoffs have been
motivated in some part to what is up ahead.
For the Mustangs, the next roadblock in their ambitious and
determined quest for a Central Coast Section championship is a
long-awaited and highly anticipated
– at least for the Mustangs – showdown with the Los Gatos
Wildcats tonight in the CCS semifinals.
GILROY – Knocking down one obstacle only leads straight to another one, and the two wins thus far by the Gilroy High field hockey team in the Central Coast Section playoffs have been motivated in some part to what is up ahead.
For the Mustangs, the next roadblock in their ambitious and determined quest for a Central Coast Section championship is a long-awaited and highly anticipated – at least for the Mustangs – showdown with the Los Gatos Wildcats tonight in the CCS semifinals.
The two teams don’t have a fondness for one another. Much of the dislike stems from last year’s semifinal clash where a disputed go-ahead goal allowed to stand by the officials resulted in a Wildcats’ 2-1 win, ending the Mustangs season one game shy of the championship game.
The officials overturned an original call of no goal, awarding the Wildcats the score.
“It was a rough call,” said head coach Adam Gemar after practice Monday.
The 20-0 Mustangs have been waiting for this game since August – not only the players, but the coaches and fans as well.
“For the most part, right now, this is the CCS finals for us,” Gemar said. “If and when we win, we will deal with Presentation or Mitty. But right now we are concentrating on the team at hand.”
Gemar said the two teams’ styles of play are much different and added that the Mustangs want to use their finesse passing to dictate play.
“They are a strong, physical kind of powerhouse team,” Gemar said. “I just hope we can go in with confidence and play with confidence.”
Tonight’s game is preceded by Mitty and Presentation in the first semifinal game of the night. The Mustangs and Wildcats are scheduled to take the field at 7:45 p.m.
“I didn’t sense any nervousness at practice Gemar said. “But I’m sure at game time they might feel it a little.”
The Mustangs put together a nearly flawless game against the Leigh Longhorns in the quarterfinals on Saturday to get to this point.
After briefly falling behind 1-0 midway through the first half, they went on a tear, scoring four unanswered goals to defeat the Longhorns 4-1.
Katelyn Nebesnick, Dani Hemeon, Elise Ogle and Aubrey Young all scored for the Mustangs, who began to pull away from the Longhorns late in the opening half.
Nebesnick’s goal knotted things up at 1-1, and Hemeon added her goal just before halftime.
