A young St. Bernard’s team has hit the ground running in girls soccer this season, posting back-to-back shutout victories over larger schools in pool play of the Upper Lake tournament.
Last week, the Crusaders opened with a 1-0 win at Del Norte and they followed that with another 1-0 win against Fortuna on Monday.
Also on Monday, the Ferndale girls improved to 3-0 with a 3-0 win at Fort Bragg, while on Tuesday the Fortuna boys got an early-season win over a league rival, beating Del Norte 3-0.
Oliver Cortes, Kevin Herrera and Tallen Wallen each scored for the Huskies, who improved to 1-1.
The win follows a 5-2 loss to McKinleyville on Friday.
The SB girls feature several starting freshmen this season but that hasn’t slowed them down any.
Sophomore goalkeeper Kaitlyn Amis and her defense posted a second straight clean sheet, and a goal by senior Malia Massayos early in the second half proved decisive.
Freshmen fullbacks Paloma Granados and Emilyn Wilson were among the young standouts
“I thought that this was a huge team win, especially on defense,” new St. Bernard’s head coach Brandon Amis said. “I asked a lot of my freshmen fullbacks.”
And they delivered, as the young crop of first-year high school players continue to make an immediate impact for the Crusaders.
Freshman Kinley Johnson also impressed and assisted on the game-winning goal, while fellow freshman Kate Bailey is enjoying an outstanding start to her varsity career and had a big performance for the second straight game.
“She was calmly distributing the ball throughout the game and making sound decisions, and setting up attacks,” Brandon Amis said of Bailey.
Johnson and senior team captain CJ Figas each also impressed on the wings.
NO stats were immediately available for the Huskies.
Next up, the Crusaders will host McKinleyville on Wednesday afternoon.
