PALO ALTO, CA — Mountain View High soccer player Maddie Neidig had a dream last night about scoring a goal.
“I was so excited, last night before I was going to bed I had a dream that I was going to score,” Neidig said. “It was kind of weird and after it happened it was a great moment.”
Incredible moment was more like it.
Neidig’s goal in the 40th minute off an assist from Natasha Harris gave the Spartans an insurance score to help Mountain View take over first place in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League-De Anza Division with a 2-0 victory over rival Palo Alto Friday afternoon.
Harris got things started for Mountain View when the junior broke free of two defenders to find the back of the net giving the Spartans an early 1-0 lead with a goal in the ninth minute.
“It was really exciting we knew coming into this game knowing that if we wanted to win league we had to win this game,” Harris said. “Once the first goal went in it was like we got this and it pumped us up for more.”
Mountain View — the reigning Central Coast Section Division I champions — are now in sole possession of first place in the SCVAL-DA.
A game that had all story lines of who’s the best team in the SCVAL-DA as well as possibly the Central Coast Section as Mountain View came into the contest ranked No. 2 in the Prep2Prep CCS top 25 behind only top-seeded Palo Alto it was almost a one-sided affair.
After going into the half leading Palo Alto 2-0 Mountain View only gave up a single shot on goal to the Vikings in the second half.
“We were terrific today,” Mountain View coach Ivan Bandov said. “We created multiple chances, probably a little unlucky to have only two (goals) and I felt we defended well and didn’t give up much.”
Mountain View (14-0-2, 7-0-2) gave Palo Alto (13-1-1, 8-1-1) its first home loss since Dec. 5 2013 when Menlo-Atherton beat the Vikings 2-0.
Bandov wasn’t surprised seeing that his team has that knack for coming up clutch when the games matter most.
“These kids step up for the big games,” he said. “I told them before the game that they are competitors and love when the bright lights are on them and I couldn’t ask for anything else from them.”
The teams tied 0-0 in its previous meeting back on Jan. 15 in Mountain View.
Spartans goalkeeper Natalie Brehaut had three saves in the win.
Vikings keeper Linnea Carlsrom had five saves in the loss for Palo Alto.
Palo Alto played nearly the entire second half without leading scorer Jacey Pederson who left the game do to an inside knee injury.
Vikings coach Kurt Devlin held out Pederson — who on Thursday signed her National Letter of Intent to play at UCLA next year — as a precaution.
Devlin took nothing away from Mountain View who have become a thorn in Palo Alto’s side after beating them 3-2 in the CCS D-I title game last year and 2-0 Friday afternoon.
“They’ve been our bugaboo team,” Devlin said of Mountain View. “Their style of play, counter attack — we’ll go forward they’ll get it and drive it down — they were chasing. They always give us problems.”
Mountain View will look to remain in first place in the SCVAL-DA when they host Santa Clara on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
With first place currently in hand off its biggest win of the year the Spartans are peaking at the right time heading into the CCS playoffs.
“We played the best we have all season,” Neidig said. “We worked together, were active on and off the ball, we finished chances we had. Obviously we could’ve finished more but it was definitely the best we have played — I’m very proud.”
Palo Alto will host Sacred Heart Prep in a non-league contest on Monday at 6:15 p.m. before getting back into SCVAL play on Wednesday when they visit Saratoga at 3:30 p.m.
