Gilroy High hammers Carmel 13-0
Gilroy – Gilroy’s field hockey team wasn’t perfect Tuesday in its 13-0 win over Carmel.
After all, “birthday girl” Laura Spellman didn’t score a goal. Everything else went according to form, however, as the Mustangs emphatically opened their Monterey Bay League schedule by overwhelming the overmatched Padres at Garcia-Elder Complex.
“I thought we did well, other than Laura didn’t score,” said Amanda Spellman, Laura’s older sister, who had one goal and three assists.
Actually, Laura Spellman did score on her 15th birthday. While she didn’t tally any goals, she had a team-high four assists and was voted by her teammates as Player of the Game.
“She’s like our Wayne Gretzky late in his career,” said co-coach Adam Gemar kiddingly of Spellman. “The ‘Great One’ when he got old like Laura had a lot of assists.”
Eight different girls scored goals for the Mustangs (2-2-1), led by Kelly Perkins’ hat trick. Russhelle Preeshl had two goals and an assist. Even Sam Saenz, up from the junior varsity and auditioning for a varsity spot, scored two goals and had an assist. And freshman Elise Ogle had a goal and three assists.
Perkins started the offensive onslaught when she scored 28 seconds into the game on an assist from Preeshl. By the time the game was five minutes old, Gilroy enjoyed a 4-0 advantage and led by six at halftime. Despite the Gemars resting their returning seniors during much of the second half, the scoring continued.
“We played well and played as a team,” said Dana Schoeneman, who moved up to midfield and had two goals and two assists. “We kept our composure.”
The re-positioning of Schoeneman was one of the moves made by the Gemars to present a more balanced attack.
“We took the best stickhandlers and dispersed them to spread them around the field,” Erin Gemar said. “We had been concentrating too much on the center of the field, so we spread things out a little bit.”
The realignment began against St. Francis and seemed to work well against one of the powerhouses in the region. Tuesday was Schoeneman’s first game at midfield and she was happy with the move.
“I really like it,” Schoeneman said. “It gets me playing more up front.”
Against Carmel (0-3), almost anything likely would have worked. And the Padres had the misfortune of catching the Mustangs after a string of tough outings which had all the girls ready to take their frustrations out on a lesser opponent.
“There was some of that,” said Erin Magill of GHS ready to break loose. “It was good to have a game like this.”
It was especially good for some of the younger, less experienced players who saw extended playing time.
The GHS jayvees (1-2-1) set the tone for the varsity by winning 10-0 as Priscilla Del Villar, Danielle Zappa and Alex Cabreros each scored twice.
