Philomath defeated Sweet Home 7-0 in girls’ soccer playoffs Saturday at Corvallis High School, ending the Huskies’ soccer season as they were starting to bring a better game to the field.
“They’re number one for a reason,” said Huskies Coach Ramiro Santana. The Warriors fielded mostly seniors this year, scoring some 87 goals on the season while giving up only six goals.
“It’s no doubt, this could be their year,” Santana said. “I don’t know if anybody can beat them.”
Sherwood, 5A, gave Philomath its only loss on the year, scoring four goals against the Warriors.
The Huskies played well, Santana said. Even though last year’s team did better in terms of wins and losses, Philomath’s coach suggested this year’s team was better in terms of ball handling and soccer skills. This year’s team just wasn’t as aggressive.
Santana agrees, he said, and he’s looking forward to building on those skills after saying goodbye to four seniors this year, including the team’s main defense, Shelbey Gillespie, Kaitlin Keenon, Rylee Cole and Jazmine Morris.
After Philomath scored its third goal, Santana and Philomath started putting in their benches, he said. He recognized his team wouldn’t catch up, so he gave the younger players a chance to get some experience. Had he left his starters in, he thinks the Huskies might have kept Philomath’s score a little lower.
“Philomath scored right away (in the third minute),” Santana said. “It was a wakeup call.”
The Philomath squad includes numerous state-level runners in track and field, he said. The Huskies were overmatched on speed.
Philomath led 4-0 by halftime.
Overall, Santana is pleased with his team. Last year’s breakout team was more aggressive and won more games, he said, but this year’s team was plagued with illness for several weeks.
He believes it probably cost his team about three games when it was undermanned, although the team had several opportunities to win more games if it were more aggressive, he said. In the end, the team got as far into the season as it did last year, the first round of state playoffs.
“It’s a great team,” he said. “At the end of the season, they were getting better, and we started figuring things out. It was a great season, I think. I’m not disappointed. I’m happy for what the girls did.”
In the middle of the season, he was having doubts about whether they would make the playoffs, he said, but they started clicking.
Feedback from other coaches indicates improvement in the team during the season, Santana said.
He has eight juniors moving up, but the younger girls aren’t as fast, Santana said. “I expect to be a little better than this year, but this group is going to be a little slow.”
The team also will need to find new defenders, since all of his seniors were defense, he said.