Girls Varsity Soccer Overcomes Injuries to Beat Mira Costa

Posted: Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Despite having 4 starters out, the Wolverines overcame an outstanding Mira Costa effort to beat the Mustangs 2-0 on a bitterly cold Tuesday night at Ted Slavin Field. Mira Costa came out with a great deal of intensity and dominated the opening half of play. Despite a lot of pressure, the Mustangs were unable to create any clear scoring chances.

The Wolverines gathered themselves at half time and improved drastically in the second half. Haley Boysen ('10) dropped in to center midfield and began to dictate the play. Alex Venegas ('10) and Katie Speidel ('11" battled hard against the Mira Costa defenders and slowly the game began to turn in the Wolverines' favor. Maddie Lenard ('09) was instrumental in holding together a patchwork backline and the Wolverines never looked like conceding a goal.

Finally, with just over ten minutes remaining Harvard-Westlake got the breakthrough. Alex V. laid a ball off to an overlapping Alyssa Garcia ('09) who played a perfectly flighted cross to the back post. Katie S. arrived at precisely the right moment and buried a header past the Mustangs 'keeper. 1-0 HW!

In the closing minutes Katie S. was played a perfect through-ball by Alex Morency ('10). Katie took the ball in stride, attacked the goal and placed a beautiful chip over the diving 'keeper and in to the back of the net. 2-0 HW!

It was an extremely hard-fought victory and it sets the Wolverines up well for a tough battle in the Mater Dei tournament which begins Thursday. There the Wolverines will face Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro, Nationally ranked Division I Thousand Oaks and reigning National Champions Long Beach Wilson. The win keeps HW perfect at 5-0. Clara Jaques ('09) still has not allowed a goal this season. GO WOLVERINES!