Partida Can Run, and Can Score, but She Cannot Hide : Girls’ soccer: Sunny Hills looks to high-profile junior to fill in for scorers lost to graduation.

As much as she might want to, Rhonda Partida can’t hide from her opponents this season.

After two seasons as one of three scoring threats for the Sunny Hills girls’ soccer team, Partida now stands alone. The graduation of Stacy Thurber and Heidi Gugler, the Freeway League’s MVP last season--left a scoring void that Partida is bound to fill. Only a junior, Partida had 35 goals and 28 assists in her first two seasons.

But talk to Partida and she’ll tell you she doesn’t want to be considered apart from the rest of her teammates. She’ll say the Lancers will be good this season because of their balance .

“I think that’s what makes it different from the past two years,” Partida said. “We don’t have a star. Everyone’s all together. That’s pretty good. I like it like that.”

Partida says this despite the fact that in Sunny Hills’ first two matches, she scored two goals in a 6-1 victory over Brea-Olinda and three more in a 4-1 victory over Pacifica.

Partida smiles and shrugs off the inconsistency, but Sunny Hills co-coach, Kenn Gordon, says Partida is sincere.

“Rhonda does not like to be in the limelight,” said Gordon, who coaches Sunny Hills with his son, Jeff. “She would rather sit back and do her job, yet she knows the responsibilities given her.

“Rhonda’s primary position on the team is to be the playmaker, the field captain, and set people up, but she’s so dangerous that if you leave her alone and try to play her one on one, she’ll take you on.”

Partida directs the Lancers’ offense from her center halfback position. At 5 feet 10, she’s taller than most of her opponents and thanks to a weight training program--”She’s all muscle,” Gordon said--she’s stronger, too.

The advantage in size and strength helps Partida control the middle of the field. Despite taking many of her shots from outside the penalty box, Partida made more than 35% of them in her first two seasons. She had 21 goals as a freshman, second to Thurber’s 23. As a sophomore, Partida had 14 goals, second to Gugler’s 18.

Jeff Gordon, who is in his first season as co-coach after assisting his father the last two years, said Partida’s role is evolving. Jeff Gordon was a first-team All-Orange County center halfback for Brea-Olinda’s Southern Section championship team in 1986, so his advice has the weight of experience.

“Rhonda is going to get her goals this year, but I would like to see her get a lot of assists,” he said. “That’s the center half’s job: to get as many assists as she has goals.

“If she can do a good job distributing to the right person at the right time, then we have the skills to do a good job.”

Without Thurber and Gugler, the Lancers lack experience at the forward positions, but Jamie Gardiner, a four-year starter, has been moved from defense to forward to fill that void.

Sunny Hills’ experience is concentrated on defense. Defenders Megan DeSales and Michael Cunningham are four-year starters and fellow senior Holly Hart joined the varsity late in her freshman year.

Leah Russell, another four-year starter, plays left halfback, complementing Partida.

Partida lives in La Mirada but attends Sunny Hills in Fullerton because La Mirada High School didn’t have a girls’ soccer team when she was enrolling in high school. Because she would like to become a veterinarian, she was attracted to the agriculture classes Sunny Hills offers.

Like virtually all standout soccer players, Partida has refined her game by playing for a club team. She plays for the Fountain Valley Spirit, which finished third in the under-16 national championships last summer. She also participates in the Olympic Development Program and has made the Southern California team five times.

Partida suffered a minor groin injury a few weeks ago in a practice with her club team, and the Gordons have decided to hold her out of some early-season action.

She was on the sidelines for the Lancers’ 1-1 tie Thursday against Orange, and she didn’t like it.

“She doesn’t want to accept the potential seriousness of this injury, but I don’t want her to forgo tournaments, league and CIF (Southern Section playoffs) because she wants to play this preseason game,” Ken Gordon said.

“I’ve never had a player that dislikes to lose as much as Rhonda. It gnaws at her, like a sore almost. She’s just ultra competitive.”

And even worse, possibly, is to not get the opportunity to try to win.