Montera’s Girls Varsity Black soccer team won the OAL Championship on March 25 with a score of 1-0. Their close win against our rivals, Edna Brewer, was made sweeter by the fact that Brewer beat all of Montera’s other winter sports teams.
The game was extremely close. At the end of the first half, the score was still 0-0. In the second half, a foul by Brewer led to a direct kick for Montera, taken by Alice Addicott, another 8th grade player. Her kick curved over Brewer’s wall straight into the goal, scoring the only goal of the game.
“This was definitely our best game,” said Piper Miura, an 8th grader on the team. “It was a fair game. If it was not for Alice in that free kick, it would have been a 0-0 tie, and we would’ve gone into penalties.”
With only 2 minutes left in the game, Edna made it to Montera’s goal. Montera’s goalie, Luna Zaragoza-Vasquez, blocked multiple consecutive shots. The game ended, and Zaragoza-Vasquez was lifted up by her triumphant teammates.
Montera’s largely unchallenged season means Zaragoza-Vasquez didn’t have to make many saves until the final.
“I feel proud because if I blocked two goals in one minute,” said Zaragoza-Vasquez. “I’ve been waiting for this chance all season because we didn’t really get pressured [before the final].”
Montera Varsity Black completed the entire season undefeated, just like last year. They won the jambouree and didn’t lose a single game during the regular season, which allowed the team to move on the the elite eight for playoffs, where they beat every team.
Danna Vaquez-Campos, one of the team captains, recruited teammates to create posters for each 8th grader with photos of them playing soccer and baby photos. The players were given the posters after the final, and the presents highlighted how tightly knit the Varsity Black team was.