Recap: Girls’ soccer struggles to score against Santa Clara

Ria Pai, Managing Editor
January 21, 2019

Viking sophomore Sarah Kim dribbles the ball during the first half of Fridays scoreless tie against the Santa Clara Bruins at Palo Alto High School. The girls had a good plan going against the Bruins. “If you go into the game thinking that you’re playing an easy team or a team that’s not known as competitively, then you’re going to lose,” Kim said. “You need to go into every game thinking that you just have to put your 100 percent in.” Photo: Margaret Li

The Palo Alto High School girls’ soccer team (2-6-4) tied the Santa Clara Bruins (5-3-5) in a fiercely fought game at home on Friday.

Coming off a 6-2 loss to Los Gatos on Monday, the Vikings were looking to come back stronger against the Bruins.

“We’ve been losing a lot of games,” junior forward Frida Rivera said. “We were just all ready to get in there and try to get a win. We all really wanted to pick up the intensity for this game.”

The Vikings’ strategy going into the game was simple.

“We need to get every tackle,” sophomore Sarah Kim said. “We need to win every 50-50. We can’t lose a ball. We just have to stay composed, we can’t rush the ball, but we need to play simple, and we just need to play for each other.”

The Vikings eased into the first half, expertly possessing the ball on the Bruins’ side of the field. Kim played strong defense and offense on both sides of the field, taking opposing players on with quick dribbling skills and speed. Despite powerful shots to the goal from outside the penalty box by senior Ella Thomsen, as well as others, the Vikings failed to score, narrowly missing the goal multiple times. 

“We were passing around a lot,” freshman Katherine Thomsen said. “We had most of the possession. We just couldn’t finish.” 

During the second half, the Vikings closed in on the Bruins’ goal, desperately rallying for a goal. Rivera and Katherine Thomsen both attempted powerful shots. In the last few minutes, Katherine Thomsen nearly scored, striking at the left corner of the goal, but the Bruins’ goalie was too swift and grabbed the ball immediately. Despite their efforts, the girls failed to claim the victory and the game ended tied with a score of 0-0.

“We came in pretty intense, once we started getting into the groove of things and passing around,” Rivera said. “You could definitely see that we were doing a lot better than them. I think that if we had finished our goals it would have been a better result.”

The Viking’s next game is away against Homestead High School (9-3-1) at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.