Whenever the Los Gatos High and Mitty High field hockey teams play, it has a feel of a Central Coast Section championship match. That’s because the two teams along with St. Francis have combined to win the last 15—yes, 15—CCS championships.
So when the Wildcats took on the Monarchs for the second time this season on Oct. 21—Mitty won the first meeting, 1-0—Los Gatos couldn’t wait to get payback. And that’s exactly what the Wildcats did, pulling away for a 3-1 victory in a Santa Clara Valley League De Anza Division contest.
If Los Gatos wins its final two matches of the regular-season, it will clinch another outright league title, by far the toughest in the section.
“This was a very good week for us and we’re going to enjoy it for a little bit before we prepare on Friday and Monday for Los Altos,” coach Henry Reyes said, referring to a 1-0, overtime win over St. Francis two days prior to the Mitty match. “It was a very hard-fought match.”
Indeed, players from both teams came out with so much energy and enthusiasm that one had to wonder if they would be able to stay upright by the fourth quarter. With a deep roster, Reyes used a total of 20 players to keep players fresh in a high intensity, high quality match.
“(Going all out) is like a full-court press in basketball—it’s not recommended for an entire game,” Reyes said. “You play a team like Mitty and you have to be prepared to see how much of that you can get away with and for how long before you need to go to the bench and start subbing in fresh legs, lungs, bodies, the whole thing.”
After each of its three goals, the Los Gatos players jumped together in jubilation, though by the third score they got a little less vertical, a testament to the grueling nature of the match. Rosalie Brockmann, Jiwoo Hong and Natasha Evenden scored goals for the Wildcats, who finished with 10 short corners to Mitty’s six, including a dominating 8-2 advantage in the second half.
Los Gatos was potent on the short corners, scoring its final two goals on the play. That proved to be the difference from the first meeting as the Wildcats simply couldn’t capitalize on their short corners and time of possession advantage. However, this time they solved Mitty’s defense.
“We tried to mix it up a little more on short corners, a little more variety,” Reyes said. “That gave us some chances to score. And also the fact the field allowed us to play ball possession even more than over there (at Mitty’s field).”
Most high school field hockey matches are played on a turf that is different from Los Gatos’ home field, whose turf and facility is specifically geared toward the sport and plays more like a college and pro field—the big difference being the ball travels a lot faster.
Brockmann scored the first goal on a deflection off a shot from Hong with 5 minutes, 25 seconds left in the opening quarter. She also initiated several of the short corners with passes from the end line to the top of the circle to Evenden, who ripped an absolute laser for a shot to account for the final score with 5:24 remaining.
Evenden has one of if not the most potent shots in the section, and she got the assist on the team’s second goal when she directed a perfect pass to the stick of Hong, who was stationed on the left side and slipped the ball past the Mitty goalie. It was Hong who scored the only goal of the game against St. Francis, a play that came when she got past the defense and received a pass from Evenden.
Hong along with Evenden have proven to be top-notch goal scorers who make things happen. Against Mitty, Reyes moved central defender Abby Lo to play some forward to make the offense even more dynamic.
“(The strategy for that) was speed, strength, aggressiveness and the simplicity of the defensive mentality to get the ball, collect it and continue the possession of someone upfield,” Reyes said. “But in her case she’s inside the circle so it’s somebody else who can shoot from there, too.”
The impressive play of Evenden, Hong, Brockmann and others including Sam Elliott, Carys Grespan, Sarah Harrell, Maddie Holloway, Madi McDonough, Rachel Henricksen and Natalie Henricksen—just to name several—speaks to the depth of the program. Los Gatos is seemingly on another collision course with Mitty in the CCS tournament, which starts on Nov. 1.
“We will see them again somewhere in the semis and finals if we’re lucky enough to get that far,” Reyes said.
Despite being a powerhouse team, Reyes knows the squad must continually improve because Mitty and St. Francis will look to do the same.
“We’re going to keep trying to increase our options on the short corner, move around a few of our personnel and see if moving them to different spots might give us a little bit more,” Reyes said. “We had a lot of decent opportunities today, so I was happy with that.”
Sports reporter Emanuel Lee can be reached at [email protected]
