GHS girls kickers blanked by Notre Dame, 3-0; Team keeps
improving play
GILROY – The outcome remained the same for the Lady Mustang kickers, as they lost a 3-0 shutout to Notre Dame at Gilroy High. But the positives far outweighed the negatives for head coach Jose Hernandez’s troops.
After getting clubbed 6-0 in its first meeting against the Lady Spirits, Gilroy cut the spread in half and only trailed by one goal at the break before allowing two more goals in the second half.
“It’s been a season of improvements. That’s been the whole goal. Defensively, they are still getting better. I think they’re playing more as a team,” the first-year coach said. “Because we’re such a young team there is no clear idea what to do once we get there offensively. But it’s getting better. We had some attacks and god did we pressure today.”
The Lady Mustangs lost their seventh straight league game and dropped to 1-11-1 overall, while Notre Dame upped its overall mark to 8-7-1 and 2-5-1 in T-CAL.
“I’ve been proud of the fact that they’ve been working their tails off and they haven’t quit and it’s been a tough drought,” Hernandez said. “They’ve all left it all on the field. I couldn’t be prouder. We’re all talking about coming back and re-establishing next year. We don’t want to repeat this again so that’s what we’re working on.”
Gilroy has not scored since a 5-2 home loss to Salinas in the league opener, and has not tasted victory since defeating Latino College Prep in the first game of the season. (Gilroy did receive a forfeit win over Seaside.)
“We’re in a drought right now, but we’re hoping to get our first league win real soon,” said Hernandez, whose squad will play against North Salinas on Friday at 5:30 p.m. in Mustang Stadium before two games against Live Oak to finish off the year.
Notre Dame put only one shot past Lady Mustang keeper Maria Alfaro in the first half, and the attitude was positive on the Gilroy sideline during halftime.
“We’re only one goal away,” said Hernandez to his players in the huddle.
But the Lady Spirits struck for two more goals in the second half to pull away from Gilroy, which had its chances to score.
“We were one shot away. If we would have taken more shots, we might have possibly done it,” Hernandez said. “Jenny (Loi) played her heart out. She did really well. Stephanie Glenn, for this being her first game, I thought she did very well. Nubia (Diaz de Leon) was moving. Alysha (Davis) moved on the defensive end.”
