Solid offense ignites defense and leads to Boy’s soccer win
Gilroy – The Gilroy girls soccer team watched its hopes of an undefeated TCAL season disappear Thursday evening. The Mustangs lost a 1-0 heartbreaker at home to Notre Dame, a team it beat 4-2 in the two schools’ first league match.
“Seeing everybody’s faces,” said Gilroy head coach Jose Hernandez. “it was a mix of frustrated and disappointed and sad.”
Notre Dame (6-8-1, 4-5 TCAL) scored its only goal of the game midway through the first half. Hernandez said Gilroy failed to finish on its opportunities to score.
“It was one of those games where the play would start to develop and we’d miss that or misfire or miss a pass,” he said. “We started getting a little bit of a rhythm, but never fully.
“It all added up to a bit of sloppy play.”
The Mustangs (7-5-4 overall) still own first place in the TCAL with a 6-1-2 record, but Salinas (9-4-2) is right on their tails with a 5-2-2 record. The two teams will meet in a crucial match Tuesday in Salinas at 5:30. But even if Salinas finishes the league season in first or second, the Cowboys won’t be allowed to participate in the playoffs because of CCS sanctions recently placed on all Salinas athletic teams.
Before taking on Salinas, Gilroy travels to third-place North Salinas (7-3) Saturday for a noon game.
Gilroy’s Offense ignites Defense in Boys Soccer
All season long, the Gilroy boys soccer team has had a not-so-productive offense and a stingy defense.
But Thursday night against Palma, the two reversed roles.
“It was the best offensive half we’ve had all season,” said Gilroy assistant coach Brian Hall. “The defense came out with a very rare poor performance.”
What resulted was a 3-2 Gilroy win over the Chieftains. The Mustangs, who improved to 9-6-2 overall and 6-3 in the Tri-County Athletic League, scored all three of their goals in the first half.
“We’ve been trying to teach our forwards to be more creative, more adventurous up top,” Hall said.
One of those forwards, junior Jose Velasquez, showed off those new skills, scoring two of Gilroy’s goals.
Velasquez first struck six minutes into the game. Freshman defenseman Andy Moya sent a long pass upfield to junior midfielder Jesus Diaz into Palma’s box. Diaz dumped a pass to the left side of the box to Velasquez, who snuck a shot past Palma’s goalie.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to start. I’ve been having bad games,” said Velasquez, who had his first multi-goal game of the season. “But I started creating things.”
The Mustangs went up 2-0 in the eleventh minute, this time on a goal from senior forward Jose Pineda. At midfield, sophomore forward Aldred Palencia and Velasquez worked a give and go so that Velasquez was freed up going toward the goal with the ball. The junior then saw Pineda streaking toward the goal and sent a 30-yard pass up to the senior. Pineda went one-on-one with Palma’s goalie and scored.
A minute later, Palma cut Gilroy’s lead to 2-1 with a breakaway goal.
Three minutes to halftime, Gilroy scored its third and final goal to take a 3-1 lead. Junior midfielder Humberto Pineda took a short corner kick and shook two defenders to get open near the box.
“He put two sweet moves on two defenders,” Hall said.
Humberto Pineda drove a pass across the goal mouth to Velasquez, who tapped the ball into the net.
Palma scored its second goal 25 minutes into the second half, but the Mustangs were able to hold the Chieftains for the final 15 minutes.
Gilroy now sits in third place in TCAL behind Live Oak and North Salinas with three games to play. North Salinas defeated the Live Oak Thursday, giving the Acorns their first league loss. The Acorn loss didn’t help Gilroy’s bid to finish second in league and earn an automatic bid to the CCS playoffs. Had Live Oak won, Gilroy would have had a chance to get even for the second spot with a win against the Vikings this Saturday.
Now, the Mustangs must win its three remaining games and hope other teams help the effort. But Velasquez feels the pressure is a good thing for his team.
“I think helps us because we want it,” he said. “The whole team wants it.”
Gilroy hosts North Salinas Saturday at 5:30pm.
