Santa Barbarga High got goals from five players on Friday in a 5-0 shutout of Fillmore at the Buena Holiday Tournament.
Hayden Randolph, Liberty Tank, Lili Sautto, Olivia Gaspar and Cate Hansen scored the goals with assists by Lizzie Goss, Hansen, Lily Purvis and Gioia Bernardi.
“We started quite slowly and with a lower amount of energy than our previous matches,” said SBHS coach Silas Fallstich. “Needing more vertical players, we brought in sophomores Athena Bow-Graham and Olivia Gaspar (Gaspar was called up from JV to aid with depleted roster for this weekend). The two of them are a bit more mobile than our starting wingers and we started applying more pressure.
“About seven minutes from half (games are 30-minute halves for the tournament) after applying pressure in the attacking half, we regained possession and played it out to Lizzie Goss, who made a nice diagonal pass into the box. Gaspar challenged for the 50/50 ball, disrupting the center back’s clear and Hayden Randolph ran onto the ball and had a jumping half-volley goal from 9 yards. From that point on our confidence grew. With 3 minutes remaining in the half, we won a corner and Liberty Tank stepped up and hit a beautifully curling effort back post, nestling the shot into the back post side netting (an Olympic goal), sending our bench into a frenzy.”
It was the fifth shutout in a row for the Dons (3-2-3).
Santa Barbara will play a second-round match against the Buena JV on Saturday at 9:15 a.m. and the final group opponent will be Foothill Tech at 1 p.m.
For tournament updates, go to this website: http://buenagirlssoccer.com/tournament-2019/