When a goalie is putting pressure on an opponent’s keeper, you
know the game is in hand.
Gilroy wins 9-0 against Santa Catalina, faces powerhouse Mitty
n Josh Koehn Sports Editor
Gilroy – When a goalie is putting pressure on an opponent’s keeper, you know the game is in hand.
Gilroy’s varsity field hockey team sent Santa Catalina home with 9-0 loss on Thursday, keeping the Mustangs undefeated in divisional play while also showing GHS is prepared for a powderkeg of a game today against Archbishop Mitty at 5:30pm. The contest will be preceded by a 4pm junior varsity game at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
The Mustangs (8-1-2 overall, 8-0 league) displayed one of their best performances of the year, consistently putting together a string of strong passes before smacking the ball into the back of the cage. Leading 4-0 at halftime, the team was able to practice tactical play in advance of today’s game, by pulling two players off the field to practice overtime scenarios when each team goes down to nine.
“Everything we’ve done the first half of the season has been for A-league competition,” GHS coach Erin Gemar said. “Today was absolutely great. One thing we’ve been working on is keeping the intensity up the full 60 minutes and we did that today.”
Putting together its strongest performance in weeks, the team should be better prepared for the final stretch of the season, which includes three top-tier opponents on the schedule: Today against Mitty, St. Francis on Oct. 23 and Saratoga on Oct. 26.
Goalkeeper Caitlyn Pierotti got a chance to stretch her legs and play some offense after spending the majority of the past few weeks watching the grass grow in front of goal. While she didn’t put a ball past keeper, she certainly had the backing of her boisterous teammates.
Diana Carter, Dani Hemeon and Laura Spellman tied for a game high in goals with two each, while Marissa McBride, Lindsey Valadez and Emily Haygood also put balls in the cage.
“It felt really good (to score) cause everyone else had scored and I never had, and I had like 50 chances,” said Haygood, who was awarded the Stick of the Game by teammates for scoring GHS’ only short corner out of six attempts. “They kept giving me a chance and I finally got it.”
Gemar was proud of how unselfish her team performed, while showing it had improved after focusing on specific points of the game in practice.
“It was fun, we worked a lot on our passing statistics and creating a lot more space,” Gemar said.
As for putting her team in a unique position by pulling two players, Gemar said that was part-strategy, part-motivation.
“That was to build the intensity and make them work a lot harder,” she said.
Such tactics probably won’t be needed for today’s game.
JV Note:
The junior varsity field hockey team was equally successful, defeating Santa Catalina 4-0.
“We played a good game, but we need to step it up for Mitty (today),” coach Allison Hodgdon said.
Laura Steele led the Mustangs with two goals while Robin Schaut and Emily Costa contributed one each.