When the Lady Scots varsity soccer team took the field against their rival Ravens, they knew that their opponent had not yet suffered a loss through 10 games. However, they delivered Sequoia their first defeat of the season after Maya Blodgett, a sophomore, scored the go-ahead goal in the 66th minute to put the Scots up 2-1, which held up to be the final score.
“Winning was a super big deal for us. We trained super hard this week, and we tried to focus as much as we could during practices and had our eye on this win,” Blodgett said.
The Lady Scots brought pressure right off the bat, continually attacking the Ravens’ half of the field. The Ravens’ defense stood firm, though, and the Lady Scots struggled to get shots off.
That all changed in the 33rd minute when senior Kyla Orthbandt received a pass from fellow senior Samantha Phan and found the back of the net, putting the Scots up 1-0.
Carlmont relentlessly applied pressure to Sequoia’s defense after they scored, and in the 35th minute, Sequoia defender Mackenzie Caswell, a senior, received a yellow card for an illegal tackle.
Carlmont was unable to score again and went into the half up 1-0.
As the Lady Scots came out of halftime, they continued to attack with the same pressure as before, only this time they were able to get off more shots. They took three consecutive shots but were unable to finish as Sequoia’s goalie, Jennifer Billman, a senior, blocked them.
“If we can score one out of every seven shots, that’s excellent. Sequoia was undefeated coming into this, so I’ll take whatever we can get on a win here, it’s a rivalry,” said John Wilkinson, Carlmont’s varsity head coach.
The Ravens then flipped the switch and brought pressure of their own, but the Lady Scots defense thwarted two attacks.
The Ravens weren’t done and took advantage of a yellow card given to Carlmont’s Sabrina Kelley, a junior, for running into the goalie. The offense took over and pushed right back down the field where Kelly Pereda, a sophomore, finished off a deflected shot to tie the game at one apiece in the 58th minute.
“I think in the first half, we came out flat, and we weren’t playing organized. We weren’t pressuring the ball. We gave up that one goal, and it’s the first time we’ve been down all season, so we talked about it at halftime that we needed to get out of it and back into our game and fight back,” said Melissa Schmidt, Sequoia’s head coach.
Sequoia’s newfound momentum was short-lived, as Blodgett was able to find the netting on a cross from Mia Khouri, a freshman.
“I thought the second half was a great half on both sides, and I think it was some good back-and-forth there, but Carlmont was able to score a nice goal. We had lots of opportunities which is good to see, and we didn’t find it,” Schmidt said.
The Lady Scots clung on to their 2-1 lead and finished the game out strong.
“The goal made everyone super excited, and we all had more confidence to play the rest of the game,” Blodgett said.
With the win, the Lady Scots sit at 8-3-1 on the season, while the Ravens fall to 4-1-5.
“I liked the teamwork, both on and off the field. Everybody was involved, everybody played, everybody contributed, and their energy level stayed high the whole game,” Wilkinson said.
Weather
Just over two hours before the Carlmont girls varsity soccer team took on Sequoia, rain battered down across the San Francisco Bay Area. As it neared game time, the sun peaked through the cover of clouds and ensured that the rain ceased for the duration of the match.
Despite the appearance of the sun, the temperature remained sub-45 degrees, the lowest of the evening.
“I don’t think the weather affected the game, but I think they were really cold, but the rain held off until the very end,” Wilkinson said.
