Paly girls’ soccer beat Burlingame High School 1-0 this evening in its fourth pre-season game.

The Vikings held possession for a majority of the game and had more shots on goal; however, the Panthers did press and had a few chances on goal.

In the first half, Paly quickly took the lead with a shot to the top right of the net from Emily Tomz (‘18) six minutes into play. Although Tomz scored the one and only goal of the night, Paly had multiple other close opportunities.

With 27 minutes remaining in the half, Tess Preising (’17) took a shot from outside the box, but it hit the crossbar.

Later, with eight minutes left, a ball was played to Aoi Sugihara (‘15), who shot and lofted it into the goalie’s hands.

In the last 15 seconds of the half, Talia Malchin (‘17) made an attempt at goal, but the goalie was able to catch the ball and keep the game at 1-0.

Head coach Kurt Devlin thinks the one thing the team needs to work on for its games to come is getting the ball past the keeper.

“We get lots of opportunities we just can’t hit the net,” Devlin said. “Today actually all the shots were on frame for the most part, which is much better than in past games, but we need to convert the chances more.”

Paly continued to take shots, on goal during the second half. Priscilla Bell (’15) started it off by taking a shot from behind the 18-yard box, but the goalie dove to the left and was able to save the ball.

A few minutes later, Malchin hit the bottom right corner of the net after receiving a through ball from Heidi Moeser (’17); however, the goal was not counted because she was called for being offside.

Burlingame’s best opportunity came late in the game when a corner kick was launched to the far post and a player earned possession of the ball. Paly, however, was able to clear the ball soon after.

Both teams struggled to convert, thus making the second half scoreless and allowing Paly to gain yet another win.

Overall, Devlin was happy with the result.

“[The game] went great, “ Devlin said. “We were a little bit undermanned; people are sick and hurt. A lot of the younger players really rose to the occasion, they had a good game and a good performance overall. [It was a] good win. They did really well.”

Preising agreed on the positive outcome of the game.

“I think [the game] went pretty well,” Preising said. “We had some good switches and we were pretty tough.”

Malchin added that she thought that as a team, the Vikings did a good job playing their game.

“This is probably the best team we’ve played against and I thought we still held our own against them,” Malchin said.

The Vikings now hold a 4-0 overall record and will play again this Saturday, December 13 at 11 a.m. against South San Francisco.

Following its Saturday game, the Vikings will play one last pre-season game against Gunn before heading into conference play on Jan. 8.