GILROY—Christopher’s secret is out.
Seirra Ceballos, who Cougar coach Jim Shuster called his “secret weapon” before the season, displayed her natural talent by scoring three goals in Christopher’s 14-6 win at Gilroy High Tuesday. This is the freshman’s first year playing the sport—and facing Gilroy—but she looked like a veteran.
“She’s all natural; she’s really, really good,” Shuster said. “Right now, she’s averaging three goals a game, so there isn’t anything that’s going to stop this girl.”
“It’s really fun; it’s an enjoyable game,” Ceballos added. “I do swimming, so it’s kind of bridging off of that and it’s really fun. It comes to me better than some sports do.”
The Cougars wasted no time pouncing on the ball, scoring four goals within the first five minutes. They added two more to finish the first quarter with a 6-0 lead.
The aggressive offensive attack left Gilroy with little time to set-up it’s defense, but it made adjustments to hold CHS to two goals in the second. Ariane Lussier got the Mustangs on the board with 2:23 remaining in the period, cutting Christopher’s lead to 8-1 at the half.
“I always tell them in between periods ‘let’s go win the quarter’,” Gilroy coach Fred Latimore said. “You just kind of got to put the other one behind you and if they can score four or five, then we can do it. We can give ourselves opportunities, too.”
Christopher opted to put freshman goalie Kylie Huddleston in for the second half and Gilroy took advantage of her inexperience. Lussier knocked one past her just seconds into the third period and Gilroy would net four more before the end of the game. Lussier led the Mustangs with five goals in the game.
“I’m proud. I didn’t think we’d be doing even half of what we did,” she said. “We played as a team, we were communicating, so I’m really happy about that. Of course it would’ve been great to win—it always feels great to win—but just the fact that we played as a team is awesome.”
The Cougars’ offense never slowed down as six different players scored the team’s second half goals. Because the team lacks size, it used to speed and strength to keep the score lopsided in its favor. Hannah Marquez led the team with five goals, while Malaya Santos and Sabrina Seery each added two.
“That game was probably one of our best game when it comes to passing, setting up and strategically moving the ball—it was beautiful,” Shuster said.
Christopher could’ve had a few more scores had it not been for Gilroy goalie Vanessa Marquez, who racked up 12 saves in the game. The Mustangs roster is full of new and inexperienced players, but Latimore said as the season goes on he can only see them improving.
The Mustangs’ (0-2) next game is 4 p.m. Thursday at Stevenson.
“I’ve probably got about 80 percent of them who haven’t played before,” Latimore said. “They’re learning and they’ll get better. The more that they can just watch, they better they’ll get. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do the rest of the year.”
Christopher (1-1) will also play at 4 p.m. Thursday against Monterey at home. It will host it’s second annual Stinky Rose tournament starting Friday with a 1 p.m. contest against Live Oak.
“We don’t have a lot of big players, so it’s all about our speed,” Shuster said. “We just gotta make sure we get better at anticipating when it’s our ball.”
