Ranked No. 1 in the Central Coast Section, the Los Gatos High School girls’ soccer team remained unbeaten, although it has been doing it by the luck of the draw.
That’s draw as in tie — not pulling numbers from a hat.
Three straight ties in league play have the Cats sitting at 4-0-3 in the De Anza League standings and 11-0-4 overall. Despite remaining unbeaten in league play, the Cats actually now find themselves in a three-way tie for first place with Mountain View (5-1-1) and Monta Vista (5-1-2).
On Saturday, the Cats battled to a 2-2 tie with Monta Vista, and yesterday they fought Mountain View to a scoreless draw. The top teams in the league couldn’t be more evenly matched.
“We’re suffering a bit from illness and lack of match fitness after being out of play for some time”, said coach Jan Nordmo. “But our players still know what they need to do to make this their season and we are confident that we can recover and finish strong both in individual games and in the season.”
Saturday’s game was a make-up of an earlier rainout. While the sun was shining Saturday, the field at Monta Vista was still suffering from the effects of a week of rain.
“The field conditions made play almost impossible,” said Nordmo. “Both teams would struggle to keep stable footing. The playing surface barely passed for a grass field.”
Monta Vista struck first in the 38th minute when a poor Los Gatos goal kick resulted in a Matador goal, and the score remained 1-0 until Taylor Comeau put Los Gatos on the board with just 15 minutes to play off an assist from Nina Purro.
With just five minutes remaining in the match, Monta Vista scored to take a 2-1 lead on a direct kick from just outside the penalty box. The kick was initially saved by Los Gatos goalkeeper Heather Rouhier, but the slippery conditions prevented her from controlling the rebound. The race for the loose ball was on, and the Matadors won the race.
With just five minutes to go, the Cats rallied back. Comeau raced the ball toward the Monta Vista goal but was cut off. Her centering pass found an onrushing Purro, who ripped home the tying goal to the far left post.
Late last week, Los Gatos got the first of its three consecutive ties when a late goal by Comeau off a Brianne Medved corner kick tied the game with just two minutes to play. Los Altos had scored earlier in the game on an own-goal when the ball ricocheted off a Los Gatos defender and into the net on a misclear following a corner kick.
Los Gatos has five games remaining in league play. The Cats host Homestead Thursday at 3:30 and play Gunn and Palo Alto next week.
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