San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Healthy Nash finds scoring touch in rout
The Alamo Heights Mules girls soccer team shared the scoring load, as eight players found the net in a 12-0 win over the Jefferson Mustangs in a District 27-5A match Friday at SAISD Sports Complex.
Senior forward Holly Nash came up with the hat trick, and Brooke Martinez and Aaliyah Palmer each added two goals to help Alamo Heights (17-0-1, 11-0) extended its winning streak to 16 games. Jefferson (11-9, 8-3) had its five-game winning streak halted.
Nash played in her second game back from an injury, which had sidelined her for two weeks.
“She’s getting back to herself — 100%,” said Alamo Heights coach Chris Sharp about Nash’s performance. “She looked great. She looked like the Holly before she got injured, and that’s all you can hope for.”
After scoring three goals in the first half, Sharp said the Mules utilized more ball movement in the second half, which allowed his team to open more lanes. The strategy paid off as Alamo Heights scored nine goals after intermission.
“We’re trying to get everybody to get a touch on the ball,” Sharp said. “We try to switch the point of attack, move the ball and make the other team move and try to defend against us. When you move the ball like we were trying to move the ball, it tends to unbalance the other teams defensively. We’re a possession team that looks for opportunities to penetrate through the lines.”
The Mules’ fast-paced attack kept most of the action on the Jefferson side of the pitch, which kept the Mustangs’ goalies busy for most of the match as Alamo Heights had over 20 shots on goal.
Nash scored two goals in the first 14 minutes of the game. The first was set up with an assist by Cayden Bordano, and the second, a straight-away shot from 10 yards out, came on a pass to the middle by Jessica Mann.
Martinez made it 3-0 at the 17:52 mark of the first half, scoring off a corner kick from Mann.
The Mules poured it on in the second half, as Alexandra Chestney, Holland Hoelscher and Nash each scored a goal during a fiveminute span.
Alamo Heights has outscored its district opponents by a margin of 97-4, posting shutouts in 10 of 11 district matches and racking up double digit goals in five of those games. The closest district match for the Mules was a 6-4 victory over MacArthur on Feb. 9.
The last time the Mules weren’t in the win column was a 3-3 tie against Cedar Park Vista Ridge in the Sam Marcos Tournament in early January.
“With the personnel that we have and the opportunities they create, I think we’re playing really well,” Sharp said. “The consistency is always an issue with any team. If we can find five or six passes we put together without making a mistake, that is the goal we set. So, we’ll go back and look at the game film and talk about it and say we’re getting progressively better.”
Both teams continue district play Tuesday. Alamo Heights will try to keep its winning streak intact when the Mules host Lanier at Orem Stadium. Jefferson, which sits in third place, looks to rebound against Highlands at SAISD Sports Complex.