Girls’ soccer: Canyon hands Valencia its first loss
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While riding the Centurion-blue plastic at the Canyon-Saugus boys’ basketball game last night, I saw a couple Canyon girls’ soccer players walk into the gym and attempt to mesh into the grandstands.
From my squinty-eyed vantage point, the girls were all smiles and seemed pretty animated while talking to their friends (unlike most of the Cowboy faithful who were watching the boys’ basketball team lose). At first, I thought they were talking about someone they saw on American Idol or something, but then I began to wonder, ‘Hmm ... did they actually beat previously unbeaten Valencia this afternoon?’
Well, I don’t think the Canyon girls have caught too much reality television this year because it takes nothing but hours of hard work on the pitch to beat a team like Valencia. Jessica Tondreau overcame her nerves and scored the game-clinching tally on a penalty kick in the 79th minute as the Cowboys proved they’re the next-best team behind Hart in the Foothill League with a 2-1 comeback victory over the Vikings.
No wonder those players were so giggly -- that’s the kind of game which should result in an immediate, post-game celebratory buffet of orange slices straight from the team mom’s Igloo cooler.
But let’s not mistake Canyon soccer for kid stuff. This team is looking good for at least a second-place finish in the Foothill League and it’s players like Tondreau and Milan Cabrera who are making it possible. Tuesday’s game against first-place Hart (the top-ranked team in this week’s Division II coaches’ poll) should be a doozy and it’d be a mistake to underestimate the Cowboys’ chances in this one.
And you can blame the Saugus boys’ basketball team’s scoring frenzy at the beginning of the second half as the primary reason why I didn’t go chase down the Canyon soccer players. I was busy enough trying to keep up with what was going on right in front of me.
-- Austin Knoblauch
