Girls’ soccer starts season with a 7-0 win

As the Falcons walked off the field on Dec. 1 in their home game against Half Moon Bay, the scoreboard showed an impressive 7-0 win.

With scores from junior forward Isabella Taylor, junior left wing Jennah El-Ashmawi, senior right midfielder and defender Allison Borch and senior center midfielder Daphne Liu and strong play from senior Christina Walb as goalie, everything clicked for the Falcons.

“We've been doing a lot of conditioning and training before the games and it was so fun to see all the efforts come together,”  Liu said.

The team didn’t fare as well at Fremont on Dec. 7, losing 2-1, and falling to Hillsdale 2-0 on Dec. 2 in an away game.

The game against Hillsdale on Dec. 2 was part of a the Freebird Tournament, which the team participated in to get more games into their preseason. According to Pickard, the team played at the same level as in their win against Half Moon Bay, but faced a more challenging team.

“Although we had a lot more chances to score than the other team, they were able to actually score with their chances,” Pickard said. “So we’re working on attacking offensively as a team and being able to carry through every chance we get.”

Pickard attributes their success in their first game of the season to the increased communication between players as well as using certain plays, which they focused on during practices.

“We did a really good job of staying in our shape while we were playing,” Pickard said. “We moved forward, back, and side to side as a team and stayed in the right positions, which worked out really well because they weren’t able to score on us because of it.”

Compared to the past year, the team has taken on a stricter and more focused attitude to make a more successful year.

“We have a new dynamic warm up and this year we're really focusing on reading the other team's style of play and adapting our game to it,” Pickard said.

The Falcons have a total of five non-conference games before beginning their regular season on Jan. 3.

Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon was unable to cover the team’s games against Pioneer on Dec. 12 and Burlingame on Dec. 13.