Carlmont’s varsity girls soccer team tied Sequoia High School 1-1 in their final game of the season on Thursday, Feb. 8 at Carlmont High School. The tie was a letdown for many, and the Scots ended in last place in the Peninsula Athletic League.
The Scots started off the game playing with the motivation of honoring the seniors for their last game of the season.
“For today’s game, I wanted to play for the seniors. I knew Sequoia was a good team, so I knew we would have to work hard in order to get a good result,” said sophomore Lindsay Wong.
The Scots and Ravens were evenly matched throughout the first half, with both teams being able to hold possession of the ball.
“Not winning a game all season, we all went in hard and tried our best. We definitely did a great job connecting passes and playing through balls, and we had more shots than usual, but we could have taken more,” said senior Ainsley Boyd.
The Ravens heavily relied on their ability to find openings in the midfield and create through passes, but Carlmont’s defense shut down almost every attempt into the box.
Conversely, the Scots were often able to take the ball up the outside and pass it to one of their forwards, but they were unsuccessful in taking shots.
“A lot of us can take shots from far and out and we didn’t. I would say we didn’t use all of our opportunities, but this was our best game,” Boyd said.
James McDowell, a substitute teacher at Carlmont, has been following the school’s soccer teams for the past 15 years without missing a home game.
“As the year went on, the girls kind of discovered their personality as a team and started playing tougher and also utilized more confidence with the younger players,” McDowell said.
Both teams finished the first half of the game with high energy, but neither was able to score. The intensity rose in the second half as the fouls became increasingly common.
The game continued with 18 minutes of back-and-forth play until senior Thais Nunez was able to score, lifting spirits for the Scots.
Just seven minutes later, the Ravens took a free kick about 10 yards outside the penalty box and scored.
The game ended with the final score of 1-1, resulting in a draw.
“It’s been a rough season, the competition has been strong. Although our record isn’t great, I feel we gave it our all every game. I also feel like our team had a special bond this year, we were all so supportive and had great energy on and off the field,” Wong said.
