GIRLS’ SOCCER : San Dieguito Speeds to Victory

In defeating Bonita Vista, 2-0, in the championship game of the Barons Optimist girls soccer tournament, San Dieguito displayed the kind of speed usually found on a track team.

So it’s not surprising to learn that Allie Kemp, who scored both goals Saturday, Erin Drown, who assisted on Kemp’s first goal, and Christine Marassi made up three-quarters of San Dieguito’s 1,600 relay team that clocked a 3:57.2 at last spring’s Section finals--one of only five Section schools to break the four-minute barrier.

What is surprising is to see similar speed attained with a soccer ball instead of a baton.

“What really separates them from other teams,” said Ron Pietila, the Bonita Vista coach who has coached at the high school level for 11 years, “is their overall team speed.”

Pietila went further than that. Even more than the Mustangs’ speed is how they combine it with soccer, he said.

“Normally speaking, we have the forwards up front who usually put the pressure on the other teams,” Pietila explained. “But I’ve never faced a team that has so many girls with so much speed and so much skill.”

So far, San Dieguito’s speed and skill has translated into a 9-0 record. They have score 71 goals and allowed only two.

Saturday, they didn’t beat up on some patsy. Bonita Vista had not lost in 14 previous games and had given up only nine goals while compiling a 12-0-2 record.

While opponents rave about San Dieguito’s speed, Coach David Emmerson praises other attributes.

“What sets them a part is their attitude,” said Emmerson, who also coaches several of the girls in club soccer. “I don’t have to motivate them. I don’t have to discipline them. I don’t have to tell them what to do more than once. In fact, they’re always asking for more.”

Drown was named the most valuable player for the 11 assists she passed out during the tournament, a Barons-Optimist record.