CLOSE-UP : Gonzalez Goes to Great Pains to Keep Alemany Winning

During a game last season, Alemany goalkeeper Lisa Gonzalez dove for a ball and collided with the goal post.

“When I got onto the field, she was unconscious,” Alemany soccer Coach Marcia Takahashi remembered. “But she was still holding onto the ball.”

Gonzalez was taken to a hospital, where it was learned she had a concussion. She remembers nothing except that the shot was wide.

Gonzalez’s philosophy of playing goalie is a simple one: play with absolute disregard for personal safety. Since the 16-year-old junior became the team’s keeper last season, Alemany made the playoffs last season and is 11-3-3 after placing third Monday in the Ocean View tournament.

But it was Gonzalez’s tenacity, not her statistics, Takahashi said, that made her Alemany’s MVP last season.

“She’s got the personality of a leader,” Takahashi said. “Anytime the team slacks off, she rides them.”

In another game last season, Gonzalez collided full-speed with a Simi Valley forward. Again she was scooped up off the field and rushed to a hospital. The diagnosis this time: a bruised groin, dislocated jaw and a few loose molars. Four days later, she was back in goal, placing her 5-4 frame in harm’s way.

“You’ve got to be a little insane to play goalie,” Gonzalez said. “You’ve got to go for a lot of balls when you know you’re going to get hurt.”

But after so much pain, wouldn’t Gonzalez like to switch to another, less dangerous position? Or perhaps another sport?

“Oh no, never,” she said without hesitation. “I love it too much. It gives me a high.”