Nikki Broad fights for possession earlier this season against Mt. View. Photo by lghssports.com
Both the boys and girls soccer teams at Los Gatos High School spent last week chanting “rain, rain, go away, let us have some soccer to play.”
The girls were rained out twice last week and will take their 11-0-1 record (4-0 in league) to Los Altos Thursday afternoon. The Cats beat the Eagles 3-0 earlier in the season. The Los Gatos girls will then make up a rainout at Monta Vista Saturday at 1 p.m.
The boys did manage to sneak in one game last week on the artificial turf at Gunn where the Cats got back into the thick of the race with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the first-place Titans.
After a scoreless first half, Los Gatos got the only goal it would need in the 57th minute when senior Ronan Hayes would lay off a square pass to onrushing senior Brad Radonich, who launched a laser from 35 feet out into the upper left corner of the net.
“How about Brad Radonich today,” beamed coach Rusty Millard after the game. “That may have been the greatest goal I have ever seen at Los Gatos. He seems to make the big play when we need it the most.”
With the lead, the Cats took control of the game on defense. They continued to frustrate the Titans, who never got anything going offensively after that.
That wasn’t the case in the first half, though, as Los Gatos withstood several Gunn attacks. Sophomore goalkeeper Marshall Finch would record five saves in the first half, none bigger than the one he made on a Gunn breakaway.
Gunn’s lone forward would get behind the entire Cats’ defense in the 32nd minute and was left all alone with Finch. But the Los Gatos keeper charged off his line and made an outstretched diving save to his left to keep Gunn off the board.
“I’m so proud of this team today,” said Millard. “For us to travel to Gunn and beat them in their own backyard sends a strong message to the rest of our league.”
Los Gatos improved its record to 7-5-1 overall, 2-2-1 in league play.
“I thought the key in today’s game was our defensive organization,” said Millard. “We spent a lot of time working on our defensive shape this week and it paid off. Gunn looked confused a lot of times, and we never let their best player get into the game.”
Los Gatos will be back in action this week on Thursday when it hosts Los Altos. Earlier in the year, the Eagles beat the Cats 2-1. On Saturday, Los Gatos will host Monta Vista at 1 p.m. in a makeup of a rained out game.
“We are building each day and this win will only make us more confident,” said Millard. “We must now turn our attention to Los Altos as we cannot allow them to beat us twice.”
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