The Paly girls’ soccer team tied up its last league game against Los Gatos with a score of 2-2. Despite the numerous scoring opportunities, the Vikings were unable to finish the game off with a win.
“We played really well, probably our best game of the season,” Co-captain Megan Tall (‘14) said. “It was really intense and we played through even though we had a lot of setbacks. We had a lot of bad calls against us but we fought through them.
The game started off slowly, as Los Gatos scored the first goal of the game after a long 28 minutes. The Vikings, however, kept possession of the ball despite the Cats’ lead. With just four minutes left in the first half, Tall dribbled the ball down the right wing of the field and managed to shoot outside of the eighteen yard box, resulting in a goal that soared over the goalie’s head into the upper left corner of the net. The first half of the game ended with a tied score of 1-1.
Despite multiple goal attempts by Sunny Lyu (‘14) and Jacey Pederson (‘16), both teams could not find the net for the majority of the second half.
The score of the game remained 1-1 until a penalty was called against Alison Lu (‘16). Soon after, Lu received a yellow card by a referee. The Cats took advantage of this opportunity, scoring off a penalty kick with 16 minutes left in the game and bringing the score to 2-1.
Paly’s strong movement of the ball allowed constant pressure to be placed on the Los Gatos team. Pederson’s free kick at the top of the box flew backpost, which was followed up by a goal scored by Katherine Shan (‘15). Shan was called offside, however, which prevented the Vikings from adding to the scoreboard.
With the clock spiraling down and only a few minutes left in the game, the Vikings picked up their energy. Lu was moved to an offensive position, which gave Pederson an opportunity to find her through the Cats’ strong defense. Lu volleyed over her defender and was able to earn the Vikings’ second point of the game which tied up the score 2-2. Unfortunately, after scoring her first goal of the game, Lu was escorted away for the remaining playtime after experiencing a health issue that brought her down on the field.
The game ended with strong offense and defense from both teams with a final score of 2-2.
Head coach Kurt Devlin commented on his team’s performance.
“The girls did great. I thought our overall performance was really good…We need to work on getting the ball in the goal and finishing,” Devlin said.
The Lady Vikes will take on King’s Academy this Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
