Flames shut out Tigers, on to playoffs
The Lodi High girls soccer team finished the regular season with a 40 shutout over cross-town rival Tokay on Wednesday night, courtesy of three first-half goals.
The Tri-City Athletic League title was already in Lodi’s hands, and the next step for the Flames will be the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, where coach Tim Stutz expects the team to go into the Division I bracket. The section will release the playoff brackets on Friday afternoon.
“Right now, we’re expecting we’ll be the No. 1 seed out of TCAL,” Stutz said. “I’m assuming we’ll be Division I, hoping we’ll be a six or seven seed, so we’ll host. We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. We played a different system tonight, so that was nice to see they were able work with that.”
Annie Musgrave kicked things off with two goals in the first 15 minutes, both on assists by Rachel Sutter. Emily Souza added another toward the end of the first half after a steal and a turn.
A few of the subs hit the field in the second half, and Lodi’s offense slowed, but the Flames got one more, a Sutter goal assisted by Courtney Heisler.
The game marked the eight shutout in league play for Lodi, which has allowed just two goals in 10 TCAL games — one each against West and Tracy.
A lot of that falls on center defensive backs Heisler and Elyssa Santana in front of goalkeeper Shelby Hand, with the wing backs spending a lot of time pushing the ball forward in Stutz’ formation.
“We really didn’t give up too many goals in preseason, either. Just like four or five. And preseason, you’re trying things out,” Stutz said. “They’ve been playing really strong. Shelby’s just stepping up, she’s made big saves. We don’t make many mistakes, but in the past we might get punished by them, so I think they play a little more confident in front of her.”
On the other side of the field, the Flames had a formidable foe in
Tokay goalkeeper Katie Price, they type of player Stutz said can change the way an offense approaches the game.
“When you play against a goalkeeper like that, you almost need more teamwork and creativity,” he said. “If you just go at her, she’ll eat those up. Rachel did a good job of going around the corner and dropping a good pass. Get behind the defense and pass, and she has to shift across the goal. A lot more off-the ball movement, cross balls.”
Tokay for its part, despite playing competitive in league games, finished winless in the TCAL for the second year in a row, at 0-8-2 and 3-10-3 overall.
The Tigers opened league play with a scoreless tie against St. Mary’s, and later had another scoreless tie against Lincoln, but didn’t lose by more than two goals until Wednesday’s game.