GILROY – In the rule book it says that a team must field at
least seven players, including the goalie, to participate in a high
school game. Gilroy High varsity field hockey coach Adam Gemar
decided he would test that rule against York School at Garcia-Elder
Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Playing the first half with nine players versus 11, and the
second half with seven on the field, the Mustangs still looked
impressive in an 11-0 victory, their second such romp over York in
less than a week.
GILROY – In the rule book it says that a team must field at least seven players, including the goalie, to participate in a high school game. Gilroy High varsity field hockey coach Adam Gemar decided he would test that rule against York School at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Playing the first half with nine players versus 11, and the second half with seven on the field, the Mustangs still looked impressive in an 11-0 victory, their second such romp over York in less than a week. The Mustangs scored a combined 24 goals in the home-and-home series while yielding zero.
“Everyone needs to work a little bit harder in practice as far as vision and first touch goes,” Gemar said. “But, we played down in numbers the entire game and still were able to have good ball control. It was a good test for us. I wanted to see how it would work out.”
The scoring came early and often in the opening moments, and before 10 minutes had run off of the game clock it was 4-0 GHS on goals by Amanda Torres, Elise Ogle, Dani Hemeon and Alyssa Kroeger.
“We have played down before, but I think this time we definitely got a flow going,” said Torres, who added her second goal of the game in the second half. “We have been working on our passes during practice and we really trusted each other today. We knew the other person was going to be in the right spot.”
Being purposely short handed, Gemar was able to frequently substitute players in and out, comparing it to how ice hockey teams rotate lines.
The Mustangs never lost a rhythm, keeping the relentless offensive attack consistent throughout the game and rarely letting York penetrate into its offensive zone. Mustangs goalie Geralyn Moon didn’t have to face a shot until midway through the first half, a shot she kicked away with ease.
The Mustangs added two more goals late in the half, with Kroeger smacking in her second, and Tayler Schaut adding her name to the stat sheet.
“Overall everyone played well,” Gemar said. ” (York) is playing with 10 freshmen, and it’s hard to stick to the game plan in a game like that.”
Perhaps the game plan was made up on the fly, but the fluid play of the Mustangs was natural and did not let up in the second half. They padded their 7-0, halftime lead with four more goals to close out the scoring.
Box Score:
Torres 2 (Schaut, Hemeon) Kroeger 2 ( Young,Ogle),
Hemeon Short Corner, Ogle (Costa), Young Unassisted, Nebesnick (Torres), Huddleston Unassisted, Robledo Unassisted, Schaut Unassisted
