The Lady Tigers wrapped up an outstanding soccer campaign on
Saturday, falling 1-0 to perennial power Montgomery in the North
Coast Section Division-1 quarterfinals.
The win came on the heels of a dominant, 4-0 win over Sonoma
Academy in the NCS opener three days earlier, giving the Tigers a
final season record of 16-5-1.
The 2010 Analy squad will go down as perhaps the strongest for
the program in the last decade, recording 13 shutouts while
surpassing all expectations.
“I am incredibly proud of this team,” said Analy coach Joseph
Heil. “We were not a team of superstars but a team that worked hard
for each other and competed in every game. It was without a doubt,
a season to be proud of.”
The seventh-seeded Tigers opened the NCS tourney on Nov. 3 with
an impressive showing against 10th-seeded Sonoma Academy. Mackenzie
Boulton got the party started early in the first half when she took
a pass from Riley Ping-Medvigy and drove it home for the lead.
Deanna Molkenbuhr and Jenna Nagle followed with two more goals as
Analy took a commanding, 3-0 lead.
The Tigers made wholesale changes to their line-up after
intermission, resting players and getting their entire bench
involved. Analy iced the contest when Angela Briones beat a pair of
defenders and nailed a shot in the left corner of the net for the
coups de grace and an eventual, 4-0 win. Credit the Tiger defense
in limiting Sonoma Academy to just two shots on goal, both easily
handled by goalie Keaton Wheeler.
Saturday’s semi-final clash at second-seeded Montgomery was all
about respect, and the Tigers were determined to garner their share
by night’s end.
Proving all prognosticators wrong, the Tigers played the Vikings
on even terms, with the deciding factor being a poor call in the
first half which awarded Montgomery a penalty kick for the game’s
only score.
“As the end of the game progressed, we were having more and more
of the ball, pressing for the equalizer,” noted Heil. “With about
seven minutes left, we pulled off a defender and went with four
forwards but couldn’t find that final ball that would put us
through. It ended 1-0 to the number-two seed in the playoffs, a
result we could be proud of.”
