Girls Soccer builds momentum with victory over Portola

Kiel Messinger, Staff Writer 

Girls Soccer defeated Portola 2-0 for the first win of league, allowing them to build momentum heading into a crucial part of the season. The team was satisfied with their performance but continued to struggle in finishing their chances.
“Portola was a competitive team but we were able to come into the game with high intensity leading to our win in the end,” senior Alyssa Stapinski said.
The Trojans were in control for the majority of the game, but the game remained tied until senior Sara Sussman and sophomore Stevie Payan scored goals late in the game.
“We really dominated with our passing and connecting, but we couldn’t seem to finish. We scored two last minute goals that we definitely deserved, but the score should have been higher,” sophomore Amberley Martinez said.
After failing to score in their previous game against Irvine, the team had made changes to the warm-up that they hoped would solve this problem.
“We decided to change our warm up to involve more shooting and game-like situations to help us start the game more prepared,” junior Deborah Lee said.
Though there was room for improvement in certain areas of the game, the team was pleased to get back on track.
“The game was really successful because even though we didn’t have a great start to season, we stayed motivated and worked hard to fix our mistakes and came out with a win,” Lee said.
Senior Amanda Kutcher was happy that the team got what they deserved.
“Our team has been working very hard to make sure that we have the best performance every game. I am proud we got the result we wanted,” Kutcher said.
The team looks to build off this game in a crucial home game against Beckman on Tuesday, January 15.