On their senior night, the Paly’s girls’ soccer team conquered Cupertino High School 3-1, to end their regular season. The Lady Vikes, who remain undefeated in the El Camino league, will advance to the Central Coast Section Championships (CCS) next week.
The Vikings began the game with aggressive play; in the first few minutes, Sunny Lyu (’14) and Megan Tall (’14) moved the ball through the midfield, leading to shots from Katie Foug (’15) and Jacey Peterson (’16).
Throughout the first half, the Viking defense remained solid, keeping the ball on Cupertino’s half of the field. After an offsides goal from Pederson, the Vikings were determined to score. With just under 14 minutes in the half, forward Isabelle Kelsey (’14) assisted Heidi Moeser (’16) in a goal to give the Vikings the lead.
After back-and-forth play, Pederson dribbled the ball up the left sideline, soaring past multiple Cupertino defenders to score putting the Lady Vikes up 2-0 with just under seven minutes in the half. Continuing the Vikings’ offensive momentum, Pederson crossed the ball to Kelsey, who skirted around a Cupertino defender to score. The Vikes ended the first half with a commanding 3-0 lead.
Cupertino began the second half with some offensive drives, but Viking defenders Maniscalco and Pederson were able to keep the ball out of shooting range for the Pioneers. With passes from Lyu, Jess Branson (’14) and Lena Chang (’15) were able to get shots off, but were unable to find the back of the net.
Trailing 3-0, the Pioneers were desperate to score and with just under three minutes in game, they sent the ball past goalie Erin Chang (’13), bringing the final scored to 3-1.
Defender Maniscalco attributes the team’s success to strong passing.
“Today we had really good patterns that we worked on in practice,” Maniscalco said.
However, the team hopes to continue to improve before CCS, when they face tough competition.
“We’ve been playing really well as a team lately,” Foug said. “We could work on individual defending.”
The Vikings will find out their CCS draw this Saturday.
