08-17-2025, 03:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-17-2025, 05:08 PM by Hieronymus.)
Got a quick 4th early in the second half and then it got a little sloppy. Gave up a blah late goal. Final 5-1. Kooky last 90 seconds, as Bray scored an even later 5th.
Overall though Santa Clara was completely dominated. They couldn’t possess or win the ball in midfield all game and mostly just tried long balls from the back; and then didn’t win any of the second balls out of it. They settled down some as the second half went on, but it never was good on their end. SC might be over ranked at least for now, but that was still an impressive win.
Line up:
Kitihata. Aikey. Montoya
Kohler. Jung
Harvey
Boamah. Evans. Murdock. Freer.
Birkel
No Bhuta, Emri or Klinger today. Or Wolf. Not great.
Observations
- as OCcardinal noted, it looks like somebody slapped a rocket pack to Montoya this year. Really interesting for a senior to suddenly be so much more athletic on the field. She already has more goals - 2 - vs. the 1 she had all of last year.
- Freer moved to CB in the second half which would seem more natural for a DM. With Emri out right now, finding more CB cover makes sense; and I am not sold on Freya. Freer was the only player to go a full 90 minutes. She is clearly going to be important this season.
- I expect we are going to see much more experimentation in lineups this year. PR has a lot of interesting pieces, and the Frosh already look better than I hoped. PR has tinkered a bit the last 2 years, but I think it’s going to be a whole other level this season. He is very intentionally trying some players at multiple positions when last year that was mostly forced by injuries.
Overall though Santa Clara was completely dominated. They couldn’t possess or win the ball in midfield all game and mostly just tried long balls from the back; and then didn’t win any of the second balls out of it. They settled down some as the second half went on, but it never was good on their end. SC might be over ranked at least for now, but that was still an impressive win.
Line up:
Kitihata. Aikey. Montoya
Kohler. Jung
Harvey
Boamah. Evans. Murdock. Freer.
Birkel
No Bhuta, Emri or Klinger today. Or Wolf. Not great.
Observations
- as OCcardinal noted, it looks like somebody slapped a rocket pack to Montoya this year. Really interesting for a senior to suddenly be so much more athletic on the field. She already has more goals - 2 - vs. the 1 she had all of last year.
- Freer moved to CB in the second half which would seem more natural for a DM. With Emri out right now, finding more CB cover makes sense; and I am not sold on Freya. Freer was the only player to go a full 90 minutes. She is clearly going to be important this season.
- I expect we are going to see much more experimentation in lineups this year. PR has a lot of interesting pieces, and the Frosh already look better than I hoped. PR has tinkered a bit the last 2 years, but I think it’s going to be a whole other level this season. He is very intentionally trying some players at multiple positions when last year that was mostly forced by injuries.