Three first-half goals good enough to propel GHS to
quarterfinals
Gilroy – It wasn’t the way Gilroy wanted to perform in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
And yet it was good enough to get through the first round.
Using two goals from Kelly Perkins and packing most of its offense in a 12-minute span of the first half, the Mustangs defeated Homestead 3-0 Thursday at windswept Garcia-Elder Complex.
No. 5 GHS advances to a second-round matchup with No. 4 Leland at 3:15pm Saturday at St. Francis High School in Mountain View. The teams played to a tie earlier in the season.
“I don’t feel too many of us are excited about the way we played,” said Perkins, whose goal with 12:08 left in the first half broke a scoreless tie. “That was not our game. We can play better. (Coach) Adam (Gemar) said we get one bad game. Hopefully we got it out of our system.”
No. 12 Homestead (9-5-4) had the first scoring opportunities 10 minutes into the game when Emily Critchfield and Nicole Caballero had shots inside the circle. But goalie Stephanie Glenn kicked both shots out, and the West Valley League runners-up didn’t get any more good first-half opportunities.
Eight minutes later, Perkins broke downfield, and Amanda Spellman put a ball on her stick. Perkins’ shot was true.
With 4:45 left, Erin Magill took a pass from Elise Ogle and fired a hard shot that found the right corner of the net.
Perkins capped the scoring with 1:11 remaining in the first. Her hard shot was kicked away by the Homstead goalie. Perkins followed her own miss.
“The goalie kicked it right back to me,” Perkins said.
Other than that span, Homestead coach Melanie Banfield was pleased with her team’s performance.
“I thought we played well,” Banfield said. “It wasn’t our best, but our worst games have been on turf. It’s a faster game. The first 12 minutes we did well until they started scoring. They really have skilled players on the frontline.”
Gilroy controlled the ball during much of the second half but was unable to score. The Mustangs (14-4-1) seemed a step slower and the passes were on teammates’ sticks as often as during the last 12 minutes of the first half.
“It was a terrible game for us,” Adam Gemar said. “We had 20 minutes of goodness out of a 60-minute game. We got some good passes on getaways. They were better stoppers than we are used to. Kelly Perkins played well.”
The Mustangs’ defense was solid Thursday, but the offense will need to improve Saturday. Perkins, who says she was nervous before the game, knows that.
“I don’t know what it was but I was so nervous I had a stomach ache,” Perkins said. “Maybe I play better that way.
“We did not have our A game today. We have to play better against Leland. We played them earlier in the season and played so bad in the first half that the coaches made us run at halftime. I think we’ll be better Saturday.”
