Girls Soccer: GIANTS TAKE SEAT AT HEAD OF TABLE
The Redwood and Tam High girls soccer teams both entered Wednesday’s showdown with dreams of potentially securing a first-round bye for next month’s MCAL playoffs and making a run at the league title in the final week of the season.
For most of the game, the points looked destined to be shared until Lily O’Shea found the back of the net in the 74th minute following a corner kick taken by Sydney Middleton. The Giants remained atop the table following a 1-0 victory.
“It’s super important,” O’Shea said of the result. “It sets us up and gives us a good mindset for MCALs and where we stand in the league. It was really important to get this win and it was a great team effort. We all worked very hard to end up where we are.”
Middleton served a dangerous ball to the edge of the 6-yard box then a Tam defender partially cleared it out but into O’Shea’s path.
“Sydney had a corner and one of the defenders got the first touch and it just landed right in between the 18-(yard box) and the 6 – on the 12,” O’Shea said. “I knew it was going to pop out so I positioned myself right there and I just got my foot on it, took a swing at it, and it hit a defender and went in the bottom-right corner.”
Genuine chances had been few and far between for either team in the second half and Redwood (8-4-4, 5-0-2 MCAL) saw out the win without allowing Tam (5-8-2, 3-2-1) a clean look at goal in the waning minutes.
Redwood extended its lead atop the table over Branson to four points but the Bulls have two games in hand after the Wednesday’s contest against Novato was rescheduled for Thursday.
Redwood closes the season against Marin Catholic on Tuesday then has a bye during the final match day next Thursday. After facing Novato, the Bulls close the season against Tam and Terra Linda.
“If you would have told me we’d be 5-0-2 six weeks ago in league, I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” Redwood coach Ivan Bandov said. “Credit to the girls. They put a lot of work in over winter break to improve and have been playing really well since the break.”
Redwood’s only loss in eight games this month came in a non-league match against Berkeley. The Giants lost 3-0 on Jan. 17.
The Giants finished second in league last season at 5-0-3 but there were questions about where this year’s squad was going to get goals from. Redwood graduated the MCAL player of the year in Sarah Farese, who scored 20 of the team’s 37 goals in all competitions – including a league-high 10 in MCAL play.
With her goal against Tam, O’Shea moved into a tie for the league lead with four goals – albeit having now played one or two more games than everyone else.
“Lily’s been big time for us,” Bandov said. “She’s been good on the field but she’s one of the best girls I’ve ever coached, human wise. I’m just so happy for her to have this success toward the tail end of her senior year. She scored the game winner against San Marin and had a big one against TL. She’s been getting hot at the right time.”
Tam’s Lauren Willard is one of the other league leaders on four goals along with San Marin’s Tatum D’Angelica. Many of Tam’s best attacking moments came with Willard serving in dangerous corner kicks from the right side of the field – most notably in the 26th minute when she served a ball right to the far post but the header went just over the crossbar.
Around the county
Darby Fones scored for San Rafael on a long free kick in the fifth minute then Leta Benson equalized in the 77th for Archie Williams as the teams split the points in a 1-1 draw. The result moved San Rafael (10-1-8, 1-1-4) up into a tie for fifth place with San Marin. The Mustangs’ game against Terra Linda was rescheduled to Friday. Archie Williams (5-8-2, 1-4-1) sits in eighth, one point behind TL.