Big win for Harbor Day
Running is a prerequisite at the Daily Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament, but Harbor Day School sixth-grader Megan Shean ran a little bit more than her teammates Thursday afternoon.
She couldn’t make the 3:30 p.m. start time for Harbor Day’s fifth- and sixth-grade Gold Division pool-play game against The Pegasus School, but Shean had good reason. Before even showing up to the Jack Hammett Sports Complex, she had run the mile in a middle school track meet.
“I got third place,” Shean said. “It was a 5-4 and under division, so eighth-graders and seventh-graders were running it too.”
In the second half on the pitch, Shean just ran back to the middle of the field in celebration after scoring a goal.
She was one of five different goal-scorers for Harbor Day, which earned a 5-0 victory to conclude pool play with a 1-0-1 record.
Isabel Gomez, Claire Eusey, Christi Francois and Madeleine Luer also scored for Harbor Day. Gomez racked up four assists.
The Harbor Day players had a spirited team cheer, too, which they were more than happy to demonstrate after the final whistle.
“We will, we will, rock you down, shake you up,” they yelled. “Like a volcano, we’ll erupt. Watch out world, here we come, HDS is Number 1!”
It added up to a stellar win for the Seahawks, who had salvaged a 1-1 tie in their tournament opener against Eastbluff on Tuesday night after Elyse Johnson scored in the final minute.
Coach Mike Gomez’s Harbor Day side knows it will advance to the quarterfinals, but has to wait until Pegasus plays Eastbluff on Friday to see if it also can capture Pool D. If Eastbluff beats Pegasus by an identical 5-0 score, then the teams will have a shootout to determine the Pool D winner.
“The 5-0 win pumps us all up, because of our game against Eastbluff,” Isabel Gomez said. “It feels great to realize that we get to go into the second round. Last year, we had a disappointing group stage and we didn’t make it out, so it feels really great for all of us to advance.”
The Seahawks, all of whom are sixth-graders, showed off a balanced attack against Pegasus, which has a roster of mostly fifth-graders. Luer and Eusey split the goaltending duties, each of them making three saves in their half of work.
Luer had a nice one midway through the first half when she came out to block the shot of Pegasus’ Kate Watson, who had eluded Harbor Day defenders and had the ball alone at the top of the box.
“I kind of just ran up to her and decked her a little bit,” said Luer, who got the ball out of danger to preserve what at the time was just a 1-0 lead.
But Francois and Isabel Gomez added goals to give Harbor Day a 3-0 advantage, before Luer and Shean scored in rapid succession about 10 minutes into the second half.
“My calves were hurting,” Shean said of the busy day, “and then I had heartburn, but yeah.”
Rylen Schmid was a key defender for Harbor Day, which played with no substitutes. Tess Emmel, Johnson, Elle Piercey, Maggie Dietrick, Ava Elliott, Chloe Elliott and Hannah Dastgheib also contributed for Harbor Day, while injured Lexie Howell offered support. Ava Elliott entertained with a “front flip” throw-in.
Pegasus Coach Darin Anderson, who coached the team along with Danielle Allison, highlighted midfielders Ari Rednour and Kate Thoreson as standouts for Pegasus. Charlotte Burnham made two saves in goal, and Aubrie Anderson also made a save after she was inserted between the pipes during the second half.
Emily Allison, Skylar Wilkinson, Izzy DeLeon, Khira Pearlstein, Lexi Hancock, Kayla Gottlieb, Cate Meister, McKenna D’Amico, Izzy DeLeon and Taylor Trujillo also contributed for Pegasus.
Of the Pegasus players, only Wilkinson, Watson, Meister and Burnham are sixth-graders.
“It was probably a little bit rougher than I expected, but they played well,” Darin Anderson said. “I was proud of their effort. A lot of the girls don’t play regularly ... [but] I’m very proud of their spirt and their attitude.
“We just don’t have that many sixth-graders that play. More than anything else, they’ve been having fun, enjoying sharing the school spirit.”
