With one loud thump, the Los Gatos High field hockey team was on its way to another Central Coast Section playoff championship match.
Natasha Evenden’s thunderous goal a minute into the third quarter stood up in a 1-0 win over Christopher High on Wednesday in a riveting quarterfinal game at Saratoga High. The Wildcats (15-1) advance to play St. Francis in Saturday’s 7pm final at Saratoga High.
“The girls are so excited and as a coach I’m relieved,” said Henry Reyes, who is in his 31st year as the Los Gatos coach. “Because I believe we have the talent to have at least a chance to see a final, and today they answered a really strong team, and I’m proud of them.”
To extend their own CCS record and win a 17th title, the Wildcats will have to beat St. Francis for the third time in as many tries this season. Los Gatos edged its rivals by one goal in both league contests this season. No doubt the final will come down to the wire, just as the semifinal did. The Wildcats received all they could handle from a Christopher squad that had a 7-4 advantage in short corners.
However, it was Los Gatos that made the most of its opportunity in the speciality situation. Evenden, as she’s done all season, scored on her signature huge windup at the top of the circle. She unleashed a shot with such ferocity that it made a loud thumping sound as it hit the backstop of the cage.
“It’s pretty darn unstoppable,” Reyes said.
The most impressive thing about Evenden’s shot wasn’t the shot itself, Reyes said. Because of grooves on the field, the ball doesn’t bounce perfectly, especially before the 15-yard line and circle, Reyes said. So before Evenden or any other player for that matter can shoot the ball off a short corner pass, they have to settle the ball with deft stickhandling.
“She has to stop a jumping ball, handle it and hit it back like she did,” Reyes said. “So we’ll take it. The short corners, you don’t get a lot of them and you better utilize the ones you get.”
Los Gatos was at its best defending the shot corner, with players like Madi McDonough and Maddie Holloway leading the way. McDonough was active throughout and Holloway in particular blocked a couple of Christopher shots that would’ve had a good chance of scoring or in the very least created an opportunity for the Cougars to put one in. Reyes gets every one of the team’s matches recorded on video along with its future opponents, so he knew Christopher would provide a stiff challenge.
“They were well coached and had a good game plan,” he said. “We tried to do the best we could to hold onto the possession and tried to keep it out of the defense as much as we could, but we let some come through today. But luckily, the defense on speciality short corners, we had an idea of what was going to happen. We had reviewed some stuff so in that regard we were OK.”
Save for a close loss to Mitty in which they controlled the time of possession and had more short corners, the Wildcats have been a well-oiled machine. They’re well coached, talented, the players compete as if every match is their last and they play with a cohesiveness befitting of a championship program.
After each of their wins, the Los Gatos players run to the middle of the field and jump in unison, celebrating a victory. On Saturday, they look to do it one final time this season.
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com and (831) 886-0471, ext. 3958.
