Girls’ Soccer Ends Season with Shut-Out Against Trinidad
May 7, 2016
Fresh off of a tight loss against Fountain Valley on May 5 that had followed an eight-game winning streak, the girls’ soccer team walked onto Trinidad’s field on Friday with hopes of ending their successful season with a bang, and more importantly, exiting the field without procuring any injuries. This, according to head coach Benjamin Mack.
“We knew that we had already won conference, so this wasn’t a conference game. Everything had already kind of been decided, we just needed to play it,” said Mack, “So I was trying to work on a few things with different formations and get players in that normally don’t get a lot of playing time in close games. Getting out of here without any injuries was probably the biggest thing that I was worried about, and we accomplished that.”
Throughout the first half of the game, the ball was kept consistently on Trinidad’s side of the field, and by the time the whistle blew signalling the end of the half, the score was four to zero, Manitou. Three of these goals were scored by Brooklyn Mack (10), and one was scored by Bridget Bodor (9). Bodor made several attempts to score beforehand, and her teammates on the sideline were vocal of their wishes that she might score.
“Bridget is always really hungry to get balls in the goal no matter what the cost is,” said Brooklyn Mack (10), “She’s really physical, which is what we need, and as that central forward, she’s really great at distributing the ball when we need her to.”
In the second half of the game, Manitou continued to thwart all efforts that Trinidad made to score, and managed to score one last goal before the final whistle blew. This final goal of the game was made by Brooklyn Mack (10), who in doing so broke a school-held record of most goals scored in one season. The record was previously held by 2015 graduate, Katie Vogel, who had scored 20 goals in one season. Before Friday’s game, Mack was tied with Vogel’s record, and after scoring four points against Trinidad, she had officially broken it.
“Brooklyn’s really a natural goal-scorer,” said head coach Benjamin Mack, “She just finds a way to get the ball in there. It’s not always pretty, sometimes it’s really pretty, but she has a knack of really scoring goals in bunches, and provides that kind of explosivity that can break a team down. […] She’s that kind of an impactful player when she’s on the pitch, and a lot of that is her speed, but now I think she’s starting to see the game faster, so it’s slowing down for her, and she’s making better choices on the ball. She broke the single-season scoring record today, which is pretty exciting for her, and exciting for me as a dad as well.”
As the team heads into the playoffs and waits to find out if they will be ranked within the top eight teams in the state, confidence is something that is present among its players, including Brooklyn Mack.
“It would be really cool if we could get a top eight,” said Mack, “But if it doesn’t happen, then we’ll still just go out there and play our hardest and hopefully we can make it pretty far. I feel pretty confident in what we can do.”
Playoffs will take place on Friday and Saturday of next week (the 13 and 14 of May). If Manitou is ranked within the top eight, they will receive a bye, and will not have to play on Friday.
