Soccer is generally considered a low-scoring game. But girls field hockey isn’t too far behind.
Teams representing Southwest and Bonita Vista high schools met on the natural grass field at BVHS Monday afternoon to compete in a Metro Conference game.
The game was scoreless at halftime; it was scoreless at the end of regulation play as well – but not for a lack of effort by both teams.
The teams proceeded to advance to a shootout that the visiting Lady Raiders captured in upstart fashion 2-1.
It was a milestone in the young program’s history, according to Southwest head coach Jerry Nestlerode.
“This is the first time we’ve ever beaten Bonita Vista,” Nestlerode explained. “It was an exciting win for our program. The girls worked hard and they earned it.”
The low-scoring affair is the product of playing on bumpy grass fields as opposed to playing on sleek artificial surfaces that often speed up the game and offer no-bounce fielding or shooting attempts.
“If you play on grass, it’s going to be a low-scoring game,” Bonita Vista head coach Ernesto Luna explained. “If you play on turf, it’s an average of three to five goals. Since we play (and practice) on grass, everything has to be very basic — passing and receiving the ball, dribbling.
“Southwest practices on grass, too, so it was a very basic game.”
The shootout replaces the former strokes (penalty shot) tiebreaker. It definitely livens up the game. Goalkeepers can rush the shooter, who has 10 seconds to get off as many shots as possible. Goalies can make multiple saves off multiple shots.
Often the first or second shot is saved by the goalie but the third shot often gets past for a goal.
Luna said the advantage ultimately lies with the shooter.
“The goalie has the disadvantage because they’re running with heavy equipment,” he explained. “If a dribbler has a really good pull on the ball, they can put it on their strong shooting side and shoot around the goalie.
“Their goalie didn’t come out too far; we didn’t take advantage of that. We were too close. All we could do was put it into the goalie’s pads.”
Monday’s match went seven deep in the shootout — the first five plus an extra two shooters for each team in the bonus round.
Bonita Vista goalie Kylie Olsen stopped the first Southwest shooter and Jordan Mazzarella promptly beat Southwest goalie Mariana Cornel to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Olsen made two saves to stop the next Lady Raider shooter and Cornel stopped the next Bonita Vista shooter to maintain the 1-0 edge for the Lady Barons through two rounds.
Southwest’s Kayleigh Andrew tied the score to open the third round and Cornel stopped the next Bonita Vista shooter to level the score 1-1 through three rounds.
Neither team could score in the fourth round, but managed to each notch shootout goals in the fifth round to tie the shootout tiebreaker 2-2.
Jasmine Canonizgo beat Olsen on a rebound shot for Southwest while Erika Ibanez scored on a clean shot for the Lady Barons.
Olsen made three saves to deny Andrew to open the bonus round while the Bonita Vista shooter deposited her shot just wide of the cage.
Sabrina Pena scored after twice being denied by Olsen to give Southwest a 3-2 edge. The final Lady Baron shooter missed the target to hand the Lady Raiders the win.
It was the third league victory for Southwest (3-4 in Metro play, 6-8-1 overall) this season; Bonita Vista dropped to 4-3 in league play (7-5 overall).
This is the fourth year the Lady Raiders have fielded a girls field hockey team. Participation numbers have doubled since the first season as the program continues to take strides forward, Nestlerode said.
“It’s been a slow growth just trying to get the girls to commit to a different sport in our area,” the Southwest coach explained. “It’s been longer than I hoped for but we’re getting there.”
Southwest has recorded non-league wins over Morse (10-0), El Cajon Valley (3-0) and Madison (1-0) this season. The Lady Raiders finished 0-2-1 in last weekend’s Helix tournament with losses to Helix (2-0) and Bishop’s (1-0) and a scoreless draw against Fountain Valley.
“This was our fifth game in five days,” Nestlerode offered following Monday’s shootout victory.
The Lady Raiders entered the week 12th in the San Diego Section Division II power rankings — right at the cutoff line for the playoffs. Southwest qualified as the No. 11 seed in last year’s division playoffs en route to posting a program best 10-11-1 record.
“We still have goals to finish this season,” Nestlerode said. “We have six games left (including five league games). Depending on how we do, maybe we’ll have a playoff game as well.”
Bonita Vista entered the week fourth in the division power rankings and seems a slam-dunk entry for post-season play. Luna said his team is likely out of the race for this year’s league title but is still a playoff contender.
“We’re young — we have only three seniors and four juniors — but a lot of the girls have a year of JV play,” the BVHS coach explained. “I made some position changes and that seems to have helped our offense. If we can keep this up, we’ll be OK for the playoffs.”
Eastlake (9-1) entered the week with the No. 1 Division II power ranking, followed by Rancho Bernardo (8-4-1) and Mission Vista (10-5).
“If Eastlake and Rancho Bernardo make it to the CIF championship game, that will be a very good game,” Luna said.
