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ARCHIVES

Title defenses begin on the pitch

By Kevin Klein/Sports Writer/kklein@syvnews.com

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Santa Ynez’s Kendall Sauter (13) and Alisa Silsbee (10) celebrate after Silsbee’s goal put the Pirates up 1-0 over the Eagles. SY took the 1-0 win.//Bryan Walton/Staff

Although the soccer season is still young, the Santa Ynez girls look like seasoned veterans on the pitch.

Using speed and precision passing to their advantage, the defending Los Padres League Champion Pirates managed to extend their offensive possessions and edge the visiting Arroyo Grande Eagles 1-0 at Pirate Stadium, Thursday.

“The first game we came out and we connected more than we thought we would and we just continued that on,” Santa Ynez senior Kendall Sauter said. “We’ve been working on that in scrimmages and the work in practice has really showed in the games.”

In the 18th minute, with numbers in the box, Sauter sent a perfect cross to teammate Alisa Silsbee who found the corner of the net for the game’s lone score.

“I was able to get it down with my head and cross it with my laces and Alisa just came flying in and shot it and it went in — it was amazing,” Sauter said.

The goal was Silsbee’s third of the season.

With the win, the Pirates move to 2-0 on the season and have yet to allow a goal through their first two matches.

The Pirates’ staunch defense is bolstered by senior defenders Mackenzie Mexico and Caitlyn Brady, who constantly muted the Eagles (1-1-1) attack, clearing most of the visitors’ scoring opportunities.

“We always want to have shutouts and what we’re trying to do is eliminate the number of goals from last year,” Santa Ynez head coach Rob Cantrell said. “We have a more seasoned goalkeeper with Jessica Mauk this year, she was a sophomore last year, so she grew a little bit and can cover the high balls, so defensively we’re going to be fairly strong.”

With great speed, the Pirates were constantly attacking the Eagles defense, creating fast breaks and scoring opportunities.

In the 78th minute, Santa Ynez’s Emily Ineman broke free with nothing but open turf and the goal keeper in front of her. Eagles’ goalie Cheyenne Rodriguez came out to defend the speeding Ineman and caught the ball with her hand out of the box and was awarded an automatic red card.

“If she’s trying to stop the ball with her hands it’s a red card, but in my opinion she wasn’t trying to do that, she was trying to come out and stop the ball,” Arroyo Grande head coach Laurie Owens said about the call. “It was a good play and I wasn’t very happy with that.”

Silsbee’s ensuing free kick missed the mark, but the Eagles were forced to play a girl down for the remainder of the match.

Santa Ynez returns after last year’s 21-2-3 record (11-0-1 in the LPL) and a third round CIF appearance and is looking for a repeat performance with a very strong lineup.

“We’re a very attack-minded team and I think we have the ability to score a lot of goals,” Cantrell said. “We have a couple of athletes like Emily (Ineman) who just got off tennis and a few volleyball players too, so we had to deal with that, but they’re coming together. We still have a lot of work to do, but they’re doing well.”

Joining the defending LPL champs are newcomers Katarina Rocha, Natalie Yamasaki and Valerie Kahn. Cantrell expects all of the freshman girls to contribute.

“The three of them are the future of the program, so you should see some good things from them,” he said.

The Pirates return to action Tuesday when they hit the road to face the Warriors of Righetti. AG also plays Tuesday when they host Cabrillo.