The visiting Mountain View Spartans girls soccer team rallied in the second half of their wet, blustery Wednesday afternoon league game against Los Altos to tie the match 2-2 in the final moments.
Trailing 2-1 in the 77th minute, Spartan junior midfielder Erica Higa saw her chance when a gap opened in the Eagles’ defense. Breaking away from the pack, Higa passed the ball to freshman forward Ysabel Baluyot with a mighty kick that traveled nearly 60 yards.
The timing was flawless. Baluyot, waiting directly before the penalty box, put it neatly into the lower-right corner with a powerful shot. Eagles freshman goalkeeper Carrie Wendelken dove too late to block the goal, and the ball zoomed past to tie the game 2-2.
“We came back really well in the end,” Mountain View captain Emma Donckels said. “Our team just kept up the intensity and didn’t get discouraged or beaten down, even when we were behind.”
Both teams were unable to edge the other in the final three minutes for a victory, and the clock wound down with the ball still at midfield. The tie brought Mountain View to 8-2-1 (1-1-1 SCVAL-De Anza) while Los Altos stands at 3-1-2 (1-0-1).
“Overall, the game went OK,” Eagles coach Armando Luna said. “We started off strong, but we definitely missed out on scoring a few goals that we could have gotten. Still, our goalie did a solid job. She came through on several one-on-one plays and made some great saves.”
Wendelken made a total of five saves throughout the match to Mountain View’s senior Alesha Brown’s two saves.
Despite the comeback, Spartans coach Ivan Bandov thinks the team -- last year’s Division I CCS champions -- should have won the game.
“If you look at the chances of us tying the game while we were down by two goals, I’d say that we did well,” Bandov said. “However, if you look at the match from the angle that those first two goals were essentially caused by mistakes on our part, it’s a little disappointing. We pretty much gave away those goals in the first half, and I think our team could have done a better job preventing that.”
An aggressive Spartan defense kept Los Altos from any attempts at the goal in the early minutes of the match, but Los Altos managed to break through when a well-placed header took the ball past a line of Mountain View defenders. The Eagles capitalized on their sudden opportunity when sophomore Allie Crum deflected a kick from a Spartan defender, sending the ball ricocheting into the net in the 13th minute to make the score 1-0.
Six minutes later, Los Altos scored once more as freshman midfielder Stephani Kouvelas took control of a shot attempt that bounced off of Brown’s gloves. Before Brown was able to recover and get up off the ground, Kouvelas shot for a second time. Despite the presence of a Spartan defender within the penalty box, the goal went into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0 in the 19th minute.
“We were definitely behind and feeling the pressure,” Donckels said. “But even then, we didn’t give up, and we just resolved to come back harder to win back those goals.”
Several Spartan attempts at the goal toward the end of the first half proved fruitless as Wendelken reached the ball before the forwards could attempt a shot.
Nevertheless, Mountain View’s omnipresent determination proved key as junior forward Dana Camin finally put her team onto the scoreboard with an assist by Higa. Sprinting up into the box, Camin aimed a quick kick away from Wendelken’s dive to score in the 37th minute.
Los Altos nearly extended its one-goal advantage when Tess Wendelken took a shot almost directly dead center to goal at the 74th minute, but the ball went too high and bounced off the crossbar.
As the seconds ticked by with no further goal attempts, Baluyot finally made Mountain View’s last stand and brought the game to its ending tie.
“Next time, we’ll just need to defend a little better at the end of the game and not let those goals get by,” Luna said. “As long as we keep the momentum we had in that first half up, we’ll be fine.”
Mountain View is scheduled to battle the Monta Vista Matadors (5-2-3, 1-2-0) at home next Monday at 3:30 pm. Meanwhile, the Eagles will meet the visiting Homestead Mustangs (3-3-2, 1-1-0) in a home game Monday after their own Thursday afternoon match against Monta Vista.
