GILROY—Christopher’s last home game was Clare McCarry’s first on varsity—and she made it count.
McCarry scored in her varsity debut, poking the ball past the Notre Dame goalie, Carina Trujillo, with 19 minutes left in the second half to help the Cougars to a 6-0 victory Tuesday at home. The sophomore was called up Thursday following the conclusion of the JV’s team season and said she’s enjoying every second of playing with the varsity squad.
“I was just thinking to not miss the ball. We were practicing a ton before and it was nerve-wracking, but fun,” McCarry said. “It’s really nice to play with more experienced players who I play on a club team with.”
Christopher got off to a strong start with goals from Erin Mank and Nikki Villanueva coming in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Cougars took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but we unable to get much done offensively until McCarry’s goal.
“We just had a little standstill where we just kind of reworked things,” Christopher coach Lia Peterson said. “I think Notre Dame stepped it up and we sort of slacked it off and it kind of came out even for a really long time and then we picked it up at the end and came out strong which was good.”
Sherelle Butler took a beautiful shot that just deflected off Trujillo’s pads with just under seven minutes left to play. Mank circled around to scoop up the loose ball, reeled back and scored her second goal of the game to put Christopher up 4-0.
“We wanted to make sure we were focusing the whole time,” Mank said. “It was our last (home) game, so we really wanted to win it. We were just trying to give it our all and leave it all on the field.”
Isabel Medina knocked in a shot with just 2:29 remaining and Maddie Gullen rounded out scoring by pushing a goal in from the side of the net with just over a minute left to play.
The Cougars did a good job of applying pressure to Notre Dame’s offensive zone, especially in the second half. Peterson said her midfielders and newest additions deserved credit for Christopher dominating possession against the Spirits.
“My mids—Jordan (Evanger), Erin (Mank)—always come through in the pinch. Sherelle (Butler) continues to amaze with her stick work,” the Cougar coach said. “Even just pulling up our JV—Maya (Loza), Clare (McCarry) and Gorjette (Sweidan)—they rolled in there and didn’t seem afraid. They really picked up and did a really good job considering they hadn’t played on the varsity team before.”
Christopher (11-4-1 overall, 10-2-1 in league) has just one game left in the regular season, a 3:30 p.m. contest Thursday at York.
Peterson said the team is working on being quicker to the ball on defense as it’ll likely face aggressive teams in the Central Coast Section tournament—which kicks off next Thursday with seeds released Monday. Mank said she’d also like see smarter player on the outside by her team as they get ready for CCS.
“Our transitions up the field (need work),” the junior captain said. “We need to make sure we’re getting the ball to outside and at the sidelines. There’s a lot of play in the middle right now, so we just need to make sure that we’re keeping it on the outside and crossing it in.”
