SANTA CRUZ, CA — One day suffering its worst defeat of the season the Scotts Valley High girls soccer team responded with its biggest win of the season.
Behind two goals from Brittany Cartee and one from Audrey Liebenberg, the Falcons soared past Notre Dame-Salinas 3-0 Thursday afternoon at Depot Park in Santa Cruz.
After falling 3-1 on Wednesday at Pioneer, Scotts Valley came out of the gate quickly behind two first-half goals from Cartee.
“It was very nice to get back and forget about Pioneer,” said Cartee. “We left Pioneer knowing we had to come out a completely different team and prove ourselves. It was definitely more of our game than we played yesterday so that was good to see.”
Cartee got her first goal in the 21st minute and her second in the 32nd minute on a header from a corner kick by Linnea Bird.
Scotts Valley (2-2-1) maintained control throughout the game with a mix of steady short crosses and timely defense that allowed Notre Dame-Salinas only one shot on goal the entire match.
Being able to get back to game action so quickly after such a big defeat was nice according to longtime Falcons coach Art Munoz.
“It was a good step forward after our game yesterday,” said Munoz. “This was a good step to keep moving forward and taking anymore steps back. The girls played really well today.”
Scotts Valley will now have a two-week break before starting Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play and making up non-league contests against Monta Vista of Cupertino and Valley Christian which were postponed due to weather.
After finishing in second place last year in the SCCAL, Scotts Valley senior midfielder Taylor Raymond — a four-year starter — feels the Falcons have what it takes to return to the top of the league.
“Yeah definitely we are definitely stronger than we were last year,” said Raymond. “I think that we can definitely take it. We have to go in though one game at a time, we can’t take any game for granted. We need to work out every single game and practice but I think we will do great.”
Notre Dame-Salinas — the reigning co-champions of the Monterey Bay League Pacific Division — saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.
Spirits goalkeeper Ali Maestri finished with 10 saves in the loss.
Notre Dame-Salinas coach Javier Chavez knew his team was going to have its hands full against a team the caliber of Scotts Valley.
“They have better quality of players, it was a tough game,” said Chavez. “Our strategy coming in was going to be counter attacking but (Scotts Valley) is so solid. They made very few mistakes but overall they were the better team tonight.”
After finishing as co-champions last year with Alvarez, the Spirits have the unenviable task of jumping from the MBL-Pacific to the tougher MBL-Gabilan a year after losing nine seniors to graduation.
Chavez is aware that his team — which featured six freshmen that saw playing time against Scotts Valley — will have to absort some early-season lumps once league play starts.
“We needed to schedule tough preseason games like this one to prepare us for league,” said Chavez. “We need to prepare for the Hollisters, the Salinas Highs and this was a good feeler for what we’ll be up against.”
Notre-Dame Salinas (4-2) will wrap up its non-league slate Friday with a visit to North Salinas at 3:30 p.m.
