SAN JOSE - Coming into its West Catholic Athletic League opener, the Presentation High girls soccer team had mauled its non-league competition to the tune of eight straight victories to start the season.
Then came Monday and a date with the reigning WCAL and Central Coast Section Division II champions Archbishop Mitty.
The Panthers sent a statement that they are for real indeed.
Presentation scored in extra time in the first half and early in the second as the Panthers defeated the visiting Monarchs 2-0 in both teams' WCAL opener at Mani Hernandez Field.
After having her first two attempts blocked, Vanessa Carlson capitalized on her third as she found the back of the net past Mitty goalkeeper Jessica Lima to give the Panthers a 1-0 only seconds before the first half whistle blew.
“Third time was the charm, it was good,” Carlson said of her goal. “It's awesome, Mitty is our biggest rival.
“I think we are gonna have a really good season and we have a lot of new players and we have some really good relationships on the team.”
This was Presentation's first win over Mitty since 2010, when the Panthers swept the Monarchs in both league games that season.
Presentation (9-0 overall, 1-0 WCAL) didn't rest on its one goal as only five minutes into the second half, the Panthers added an insurance goal when Erin Hartung found the back off the net off an assist from Dani Lownsbery.
“It's a statement victory but definitely one of the harder games we've had to play,” Hartung said. “We've built as a team cohesively and I think everyone stepped up this game to help us win. We knew we had to prove ourselves and I think we did a good job.”
The Panthers were able to stave off several clear looks with their stingy defense that has only allowed four goals all season.
Panthers keeper Taylor Fraley had six saves.
With such an early WCAL statement victory, Presentation coach Todd Daniels doesn't want his team to get too overconfident but at the same time enjoy the victory over their rivals.
“It's just one game and I don't want to make too much of it,” he said. “We know we beat an outstanding team and an outstanding program but we're in the right direction of where we want to be in this point of the season. It's a good step of where we want to be.”
The Panthers will took to keep their perfect record alive when they visit St. Ignatius (4-2-2) on Saturday at 11 a.m. in San Francisco.
Mitty (4-2-2, 0-1) had its chances - in fact the Monarchs out-shot the Panthers 6-4 - but they just couldn't find the back of the net.
This year the Monarchs are very young after graduating 11 seniors from last year's team that captured the CCS D-II and WCAL title, including the Prep2Prep Player of the Year Kristina Sola and Senior of the Year Amy Apostol.
Mitty is still considered among the top teams in the uber-competitive WCAL as well as the section.
“Give them a lot of credit - they were very organized and played a lot of smart counter-attacking soccer,” Mitty coach J.T. Hanley said. “Todd has them well prepared and they played off this field very well and like in any soccer match they took their chances. They didn't create a whole lot of scoring opportunities but the ones they had they finished.”
Lima finished with three saves for Mitty.
After not losing a game in league last year the Monarchs are looking up in the standings.
“We're young and we'll learn a lot from this,” Hanley said. “We won't get too down about this and in two days we are at St. Ignatius. Now we are in that grind of two games a week so how we respond on Wednesday will tell me how much we learned from this.”
The Monarchs face SI at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday.
