The St. Joseph girls soccer team will enter league play at 9-0-0.
Freshman Liz Vega took a pass from Zorah Coulibaly in traffic then netted a deftly-placed high chip shot in the sixth minute for the only goal as the Knights edged Foster Road rival Righetti (6-4-0) 1-0 in a non- league game at Righetti’s Warrior Stadium Tuesday night.
“I thought my best chance to score would be to do a chip shot over the goalie’s head,” Vega said afterwards. “That’s the second goal I’ve scored on a chip this year.”
Both teams are off until they start league play on the road Jan. 3. St. Joseph will make his Mountain League debut at Paso Robles at 6 pm that night. Righetti will open his Ocean League campaign at Lompoc at the same time.
The Knights and the Warriors were each able to take away some positives from this one in their last tuneup before they start their respective league seasons.
Trinity Fuller, Marissa Jordan and Emmerson Reynolds helped lead a St. Joseph’s defense stood firm and posted his fourth shutout of the season and second in the Knights’ last three games.
St. Joseph goalkeeper Annie Heybl was solid in goal again, making five saves including a diving stop on a good free kick from 50 yards out by Righetti’s Kendra Daniels.
The Warriors made a lot of good thrusts but, “We shut them down,” said Vega.
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From the home team’s standpoint, Paige Bailey and Maggie Denton led a Righetti defense that was solid itself, and Raquel Schmid helped the Warriors control a lot of the midfield action.
Whenever the Knights challenged her, Righetti junior goalie Regina Reyes was up to the task. She just couldn’t do anything about the perfectly-placed Vega chip that went high over her head and landed in the back of the net.
Righetti possessed the ball for the balance of the second half, and the Knights usually couldn’t knock Daniels or Schmid off the ball as the home team repeatedly drove deep into St. Joseph territory. The Warriors just couldn’t score.
St. Joseph has primarily a veteran team, with 10 seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and one freshman, Vega. Righetti is veteran-laden as well, with eight seniors, eight juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen.
Although the Knights have posted four shutouts this year, “I think offense is the biggest strength of our team,” said St. Joseph coach Djibril Coulibaly.
The Knights have scored 41 goals on the year, and the Righetti defense kept the St. Joseph offense to its lowest scoring output this season. Zorah Coulibaly leads the Knights in goals on the year with 11.
“We have a lot of players on vacation, and it was difficult to make things work,” Djibril Coulibaly said later Tuesday night.
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