Christopher’s Bella Marquez did her job in the cage and then got to test her skills on offense — and she came out firing.
The Cougars’ goalie came up with seven saves in half a game of work, helping her team to a 13-3 win over crosstown rival Gilroy Tuesday at home. Marquez allowed only one goal during her tenure in net.
Marquez had played in the field once before for the Cougars, but said she lacked the endurance to stay competitive in the game. This time, however, she said it went much better and she was able to focus more on the mental aspect of her game.
“I did better than I thought I was going to do,” Marquez said. “(I was just thinking) pump the goalie — do what I hate. Whatever people do that I hate, do it to them.”
Marquez’s goals both came early in the third quarter, helping boost Christopher to a 9-1 lead at that point. Nine different Cougars netted goals in the game and were led by Ashley Shuster who scored three. Coach Jim Shuster credited calling up some JV players to the balanced offensive attack.
“We normally don’t substitutes, but I brought up half my JV team and they still performed very well,” Jim Shuster said. “It gave the starters a little break.”
Gilroy was led by senior Abby Kienle who made her presence known on both sides of the ball. Kienle scored two of the Mustangs’ three goals off nine attempts and came up with two steals in the game. Kienle said she had just one thing on her mind during the game: Beat Christopher.
“I wanted to beat Christopher since my sophomore year when they started a team,” she said. “We never accomplished it. It was something that I wanted so badly so I was going to try anything I could to make that happen. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Christopher’s win helped them complete the sweep over Gilroy this season after winning the first meeting 14-11. The Cougars improved to a 4-4 overall record, while Gilroy fell to 1-7.
“Some days are better than others to say the least,” GHS coach Fred Latimore said. “I’m not real sure (what happened) quite frankly. We try to make the best of it always when we come out here and today it just didn’t go our way. We’re just going to have to regroup for Thursday — it’s a quick turn around.”
Gilroy will play Monterey at 5 p.m. home at Thursday.
Christopher will be back in action at 4 p.m. Tuesday to host Stevenson. After this contest, the Cougars felt they had little to work on in preparation for Stevenson.
“After this game, (there’s) not a whole lot (we have to work on),” Jim Shuster said. “We always have to work on footing and passing and using our heads.”
