GHS Girls Soccer ends season with 5-1 loss to Santa Teresa in
first round of playoffs
San Jose – Playoff success will just have to wait another year.
The Gilroy girls soccer team played a promising first half Wednesday against Santa Teresa in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.
But the No. 11 seed Mustangs needed a full-game effort to take down the 2005 runners-up.
That didn’t happen.
The Mustangs trailed 2-1 at the half, but watched their hopes of moving on to the second round fade fast in the final 40 minutes of the game as the Saints scored three unanswered goals.
“We’re taking our lumps and our growing pains, just like everybody else,” said Gilroy head coach Jose Hernandez, whose team lost out on the Tri-County Athletic League title by one point.
“(Gilroy) field hockey has been (going to CCS) for six years and they’re getting better and better,” he added. “So we have to remember its only our third year.”
The Mustangs close out the season at 8-7-5, who will have 15 players returning next year.
Gilroy matched sixth-seeded Santa Teresa 1-1 in the first half when senior forward Joann Pedroza knocked in a rebound shot in the penalty box for goal.
In the last two minutes of the half, Santa Teresa (10-4-5) got its second goal. As a Saints forward took the ball toward goal, senior defender Kendra Sato successfully chased her down and got to the ball as Mustang sophomore goalie Sara Hugo came out of goal to converge on the play. But the ball ended up at the feet of Santa Teresa’s Lenor Silva who was following the play. She put the ball into the upper right corner of the open goal.
After the Santa Teresa’s Michelle Brunsun scored to make it 3-1 in the third minute of the second half, the Saints took advantage of a similar situation three minutes into the second half for their back-breaking fourth goal. Hugo again came out of the goal to successfully stop Chantel Lyons on a breakaway, but her clearing pass up the field was cut-off 40 yards out by Silva. She sent a long, high-lofting shot over Hugo’s head and into the goal to make it 4-1 Santa Teresa with just under 10 minutes to play. The Saints scored another goal six minutes later to finalize the win.
“We just lost our focus,” said Sato, who has been a mainstay for the Gilroy defense all season.
Said Pedroza, “It’s sad to see the season end. We had some injuries come up and I think some people gave up and let the team down.”
To Gilroy’s detriment, some of those injuries were to key players, including Sato (pulled quad) and junior midfielder Amanda Bruce. Bruce was forced to leave the game after she suffered a deep bruise to one of her legs.
“We weren’t quite able to get over this hump and so we go back to the drawing board,” said Hernandez, who loses just six seniors from his squad.
Coaching the Saints on the opposite sideline was former Gilroy girls soccer coach Anna Shortt-Thomas. She ran the Mustang program from 1993-1997
“I think they’ve done great,” Shortt-Thomas said. “It’s nice to see them playing really pretty soccer. They gave us a run for the money in the first half.”
