By Caleb Knudsen
The Healdsburg High girls soccer team continues to play well, both at home and on the road, giving their opponents reason to fear meeting the Greyhounds on the pitch. To put it bluntly, they haven’t lost a match yet, though their 11-0-2 record can’t be called perfect.
It is, however, perfectly impressive—they’ve run up seven shutouts, demonstrating senior Kimberly Lopez’s command of the goal line. Meanwhile they’ve scored 47 goals in 13 games, the latest blowout being an 8-0 win against American Canyon on Monday, Jan. 13.
Senior Julia Dolph and freshman June Sullivan both scored “hat tricks,” credited with three goals each. Junior Vanessa Castro and freshman Renata Maturana booted in the other two goals. Dolph leads the team with 13 goals this season, while Sullivan is right behind her with 11. Senior forward Madeleine Munsell provided 6 assists in this game alone.
Assistant coach Peter Mork pointed out that a sign of the team’s dominance is that their two ties last week came against undefeated teams—2-2 against RUP (now 4-0-1) and 1-1 against Salesian (now 4-1-1), whose only loss was a forfeit.
Though North Bay – Redwood division play has yet to begin—the first match comes this Friday night at Healdsburg High field against Santa Rosa—soccer fans would not be surprised to see the girls rack up another win. Santa Rosa is 2-3 so far on the year, the disparity in matches played due to the Panthers’ absence from tournament play last month.
Overall it’s clear this year’s team is leagues ahead of last year’s. That team finished the season 5-9-2, 2-8 in the league. This year’s record is 11-0-2 so far, with league play yet to begin. What a difference a year makes.
The head coach is again Tomas Morales, the former boys team coach, with Mork and Brian Saini backing him up. Asked about this year’s success, Mork told us, “More than the record, it’s about a positive environment where our senior leaders, many of whom have played together from a young age, set the tone with their skill and leadership. We’ve combined this with talented underclassmen who have made meaningful contributions. We’re lucky to have a group of great kids with a lot of heart.”
Home games begin at 7pm, on the playing field at University Street. From this point on, all matches are against division opponents Elsie Allen away (Jan. 22), Piner at home (Jan. 24), and Rancho Cotate again at home (Jan. 28) before starting over with a Santa Rosa rematch on Feb. 4.
Boys Solid as League Play Begins
The Greyhound boys team is showing signs of improvement as well. Last year their 5-10-2 record was a bit of a disappointment—they finished with 9-6-3 the year before—but as the North Bay – Redwood division play begins they have a solid 5-4-2 record.
They’ve won two of their last three games, including a nice 3-0 win over our northerly neighbor Cloverdale on Jan. 9. They also defeated Cloverdale 6-0 to open the season, and have gotten the best of St. Helena twice and Windsor once. So in this neighborhood, Healdsburg is on top.
But that’s next to meaningless. The real statistical competition begins with Redwood League rival Piner on Thursday. A non-league matchup at Kelseyville on Saturday intervenes, then it’s all Redwood, all the time until mid-February: Elsie Allen (Jan. 21), Analy (Jan. 23), Santa Rosa (Jan. 29), then restarting the league cycle on Feb. 5.
This Thursday’s 7pm meeting with Piner could go either way. The Santa Rosa school is ranked higher in state standings, but their record this year is a modest 2-1-5, so on paper the Greyhounds stand a good chance to pull out a win on their home Healdsburg grass.
Said coach Lemus, “Players to watch for Healdsburg would be junior forward Jairo Mendoza, who leads the team with seven goals and four assists; senior defender and captain Damian Medrano; and senior goalkeeper Roy Paz, with four shutouts in 11 games.”
Of the upcoming league season, Lemus noted that Piner had been the Oak division champion two years ago and should be “the team to beat” this year as well.
“Key for us is to stay healthy and, of course, we need to be consistent with our play,” said the coach. “I feel that the parity of the teams is going to make it a very interesting season.”
He added, “Hard work equals positive results. That’s how we like to think.”
