MOUNTAIN VIEW – It didn’t take long for the Gilroy High field
hockey team to put its coaches pre-game worries at ease.
Rattling off three scores in the first 12 minutes of play, the
Mustangs shut out perennial Central Coast Section power St. Francis
High 3-0 on a hot Thursday afternoon in Mountain View.
MOUNTAIN VIEW
It didn’t take long for the Gilroy High field hockey team to put its coaches pre-game worries at ease.
Rattling off three scores in the first 12 minutes of play, the Mustangs shut out perennial Central Coast Section power St. Francis High 3-0 on a hot Thursday afternoon in Mountain View.
Gilroy improved to 8-0 on the young ’09 season behind three first half tallies.
Senior Amanda Torres and juniors Dani Hemeon and Alyssa Kroeger all scored in the impressive road victory.
Coming off a quality 1-0 shut out over Archbishop Mitty earlier this week, Gilroy took down its second WCAL team of the week.
After not liking what he saw during a league win over Monterey on Tuesday, Gilroy head coach Adam Gemar watched his team come out a little sluggish to open Wednesday’s practice.
“I didn’t like what I saw the last couple days,” Gemar said. “We talked things out as a team yesterday and obviously I’m very proud of the effort from the entire group today.”
St. Francis High, who has played in the CCS field hockey title game five times in the past seven seasons, had their hands full early, dealing with an upstart group of Gilroy forwards.
One minute into the 60-minute affair, several players clad in their Mustangs blue hovered around the Lancers’ goal.
Junior Tiana Huddlestun sent a nice feed to teammate Alexandra Rose for an early quick shot.
Four minutes later, the Mustangs were on the board.
Off a short corner pass from Rose, Hemeon whacked home a big slap shot to put the Mustangs up 1-0.
“If the defense doesn’t pressure us, we’ll eat them up,” Gemar said. “They gave us a lot of space to work and we were able to take advantage of it.”
At the 10-minute mark Gilroy was on the board again.
Off a deep shot from Hemeon, an alert Kroeger banged home the juicy rebound to pad the lead and force a St. Francis timeout.
“It was kind of nerve-racking at first,” Kroeger said. “I knew this year as a junior I had to step it up. It was my turn now.
“I thought the shot was going to hit me. Then I saw it land right in front of me. I didn’t think about it, I just hit it and put it in.”
Unable to maintain possession throughout the game, St. Francis couldn’t keep the Gilroy front line away from its net in the first half of play.
Senior Elise Ogle poked free a 50/50 ball at midfield, then dished the ball to a streaking Hemeon.
Hemeon fired off another big shot, this time Torres was in front for a timely tip. Torres got a stick on the ball and deflected home goal No. 3 for the Mustangs.
Play evened out after the impressive opening 15 minutes.
Senior Gilroy goalie Geralyn Moon only needed to make two saves during the shutout victory.
“The win kind of helps us gauge where we are as a team,” Kroeger said. “But its still early in the season, we don’t want to peak too early.”
The Mustangs have the weekend off before traveling down the coast to take on Carmel on Monday.
