Girls Soccer vs Grace Brethren

April 17, 2021

Cate GVS 1 – 1 Grace Brethren

Saves: Taylor Kane (7)

Assists: Jolea Moes

Goals: Tali Nam

Record: 0 – 1 – 1

On Friday afternoon the Cate girls varsity soccer team traveled down to Simi Valley to play Grace Brethren, a team that is always physically strong.  They were physically strong again this year but lacked finesse, and we really wish we could have won.  The goal against was scored in the opening minutes; we were caught off guard on a corner kick.  I’m proud of how the girls rallied.  They dug in and worked to play thoughtful tactical soccer under adverse conditions.  Our backline held excellent shape and included the addition of Rachel Ma ’22 in the middle alongside Olivia Dorion ’22, Tamsyn Taptich ’23, and Josie Frazer ’24.  You would not have known it was their first time working together as a group of four – the pressure/cover alignment was often a thing of beauty and together they provided the team with assurance that they could push forward for goal scoring opportunities.  In the midfield, Charlotte Weis ’22 and Tali Nam ’21 ran and ran and ran.  I’ve rarely seen two Cate midfielders make so many balancing runs in a single 80-minute stretch; they made heart-wrenching sprints back on defense and hopeful, unexpected dashes forward the entire game long.  Fortunately, one of these second-half efforts was rewarded when Jolea Moes ’21 collected the ball beautifully in the middle of the field and magically created a bit of time and space.  She played a leading pass right into Tali’s diagonal running lane (hard to do on this sandy field). Tali touched it away from pressure and had so much composure to slot it past the goalkeeper, low and in the corner, just like we drew it up.  It really was as though time stood still in an otherwise chaotic, hard-tackling, get-rid-of-the-ball-before-your-ankles-get-crunched kind of game; Jolea had the awareness to take advantage and Tali the foresight to anticipate.  Then our group immediately collected the ball and worked for the next 30 minutes.  Coco LeRoy ’22 held space up top even though she’s never been asked to do that before, and Taylor Kane ’21 made a Wonder Woman style save in which I’m pretty convinced she flew diagonally across the face of the goal.  While the group was completely exhausted when the clock ran out, it was hard to hear because the win seemed that close.  The whole escapade was an incredible effort and, as our captains emphasized at the end of the game, that one was winnable. We are looking forward to playing Grace again on our home turf.

Our next game is away Wednesday evening at St. Bonaventure (5:00pm), but we play at home on Friday against the team from Foothill Tech.  Kickoff will be at 4:30 and we hope to see you there – the fan club last week was wonderful!