Grey clouds hovered above the Redhill soccer field, but luckily for the Redwood and Drake girls’ varsity soccer teams, they didn’t burst with rain until only one minute of the game remained. The grim weather didn’t stop Redwood from putting on a show. This past Saturday, Dec. 15. the Redwood Giants shut down the Drake Pirates with a score of 3-0.
Goalkeeper freshman Mia Hamant held off Drake’s persistent attackers with help from her center backs. Much of Redwood’s first half was spent playing defense, with Hamant saving just under ten shots. Senior Julia Scharf sprinted up and down the sideline as outside back, effectively clearing the ball, with support from senior Amanda Morse who played center back. As one of the goalkeepers, Sophomore Lindsay Felder believes that Morse, as well as junior Sophia Curtaz, another center back, complement each other on the field nicely.
“When I was a freshman they were always players who were welcoming and strong on the field. They were good teammates. As a goalkeeper, they are players that I can always rely on to have my back,” Felder said.
In addition to the strong backfield, Redwood’s success can also be attributed to the offense.
Senior Maddie Pero scored two goals in the first half of the game, and junior Grace Bouton scored another in the final minutes of the first half.
Curtaz credits much of their success in this game to Pero.
“She scored two goals and was communicating [well] during the entire game. She was instructing players and overall she looked really good out there,” Curtaz said.
This year Pero and senior Georgia Bennett are the team captains. So far, they have proven to have quite a positive influence on the rest of the team, according to Curtaz.
“In the past our captains haven’t been the best leaders. This year Maddie and Georgia are doing a really good job leading our team and they are keeping our team organized,” Curtaz said.
She believes that this year’s captains are effective by creating a strong bond that is reflected on the field.
According to junior Anouk Guilhaume, the team captains create a positive attitude going into every game. This was especially evident for Redwood on Saturday’s game against the Pirates.
“[In the past] everyone felt super confident because we usually win. This year was a little different because we knew that they had new players that were pretty good. We knew to not go into the game overly cocky,” Guilhaume said.
Although the team played well, Guilhaume believes that they still have a lot of work cut out for them moving forward.
“We need to work on finishing our chances in the box, shooting [and] getting people at the end of our crosses because we had a lot of good crosses but no one to finish them,” Guilhaume said.
According to Guilhaume, her team will have at least two more months to improve on these skills with MCAls, and potentially a few more weeks if Redwood moves on to NCS.
On Jan. 5, the Redwood girls’ varsity team plays against Terra Linda at Terra Linda High School.