The Palo Alto Lady Vikes dominated the San Jose Latino Prep Golden Eagles, 14-0, in their first round match up of the Winter Tournament on Monday.
“I feel like this was a good opportunity for us to get practice in and to work on our teamwork,” junior defender Hana Kajimura said.
The Lady Vikes, boasting a 4-4-2 formation, began with a strong offensive push. Within the first ten minutes, the Vikings were up, 2-0, with one goal from junior striker Kelly Jenks, and the other from junior striker Emily Yeates. Jenks connected her shot off an assist from senior midfielder Jessie Duller, and assisted Yeates with her goal after a fast break.
The Lady Vikings never let up the pressure. By the end of the first half they were up, 9-0, and the Golden Eagles had pushed into the Vikings’ half of the field, excluding after a kickoff, a mere five times. The Golden Eagles spent a total of about three minutes on the Viking half of the field.
“Our offense played really well,” junior midfielder Kaitlyn Patterson said, “and by the score, you can tell the other team just couldn’t stop us.”
In the second half, the majority of the starters were pulled and the subs were put in. Despite this change, the scope of the game saw little change: the Lady Vikes scored five more goals during the half. Yet again, the Golden Eagles pushed into Viking territory on their own merits a mere five times during this half.
The Viking defense held the Golden Eagles on lock-down. It prevented the Golden Eagles from ever getting closer than 25 yards from the goal, and held the Golden Eagles from taking one shot the entire game.
Some notable standouts from this game included freshman striker Marina Foley and sophomore goalkeeper Alex Kershner. The sole freshman on the team, Foley scored three goals and had one assist. Kershner, although never having to make a save, scored a penalty kick two minutes before the first half ended.
Head coach Ernesto Cruz is pleased with the team’s performance.
“It looks like the girls understand how they’re gonna need to play for the rest of the season,” Cruz said.
The Vikings are also pleased with their performance, but believe they could have done better.
“We could’ve possessed it [the ball] more,” Jenks said. “We had a lot of space to control the ball.”
The Lady Vikes will play the Los Altos Eagles at 2 p.m. on Tuesday at Mayfield, and then will play the Woodside Priory Panthers at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Paly. If the Vikings accumulate enough points across the three games, then they will play in the Winter Tournament Classic finals on Friday.