TOKAY GIRLS FEND OFF GALT
Galt’s girls soccer team had a physical game plan, an early goal and better control of the field for most of the first half of Thursday’s game at the Grape Bowl. But Tokay had Sophia Casciaro. The speedy, five-foot tall striker tallied a hat trick before the break to help the Tigers overcome a Galt goal in the first two minutes, and Tokay held on to win 32 in the final non-conference game for Tokay.
“We’re on a winning streak right now, so we’re pretty excited for league,” Casciaro said about the team’s four-game upswing.
It took less than two minutes for Galt to strike when Tara Blackwell got to a loose ball and beat Tokay goalkeeper Mia Misasi one-on-one to find the net. But Casciaro and Tokay responded, first with a shallow shot from the left side, courtesy of an Odyssi Garcia pass from the middle, then with the help of a through ball from Alexia Garcia.
“I was kind of frustrated at first with the goal that they scored, and I didn’t want to head down,” Casciaro said. “So I went straight at it to try and get a goal to catch up.”
Defender Vylynn Ha watched it all go down from the other side of the field.
“Once you get the first goal, the second goal comes right away with the adrenaline rush,” she said.
Casciaro struck again at the 35minute mark, stealing the ball near midfield and sprinting with it all the way down to go face-to-face with Galt goalkeeper Rachel Vermeltfoort. Casciaro was able to send it across the box to find the net.
“I felt when they scored, it was really nothing. I knew my girls had it in them to come back right away,” Tokay coach
Samuel Gonzalez said. “We’ve been working on that the past two years. We get scored on, we have to put our head up and play the way we play. Good things will come out of it.”
A much more physical Galt squad came back from the halftime break, with players using shoulders and hips to jockey for control of the ball. It paid off with a 59th-minute goal from Isabella Minatre, who received a pass from teammate Mia Miron after she collected a boot from the goalkeeper uncontested.
Miron slotted the ball through to Minatre, who was able to get around Misasi for the score.
Suddenly it was a one-goal game, and the intensity ratcheted up several notches, but the Tokay defense, with players like Ha, Garcia, Natalie Nord, and Lauren Frisk were able to bend, but not break, under the physicality of Galt’s renewed energy.
“They definitely were frustrated, and they came back harder than we anticipated, because the first half they weren’t as hard,” Ha said. “Defensively, it was hard because they were pushing and shoving, but you just have to do it back.”
Misasi finished with two saves, and made several plays where early action kept a Galt combination from developing. At one point she slid to steal the ball from Miron, who had to leap to avoid a collision. Vermeltfoort made a few similar play to disrupt Tokay’s strikers on the other end of the field.
Tokay (5-3) is off until it opens Tri-City Athletic League play at Lincoln on Jan. 12. Galt (5-4) has one more non-league contest, at Kennedy in Sacramento on Jan. 3.
“Good way to end the preseason,” Gonzalez said. “Four games in a row with a win, I think the girls are feeling confident. I’m excited, I think they’re excited, and we’re ready for the season.”