Valencia at a Loss Again When It Plays Hart, 1-0
A Hart High fan put it in perspective.
“Valencia can beat pretty much everybody, but they cannot beat us,” he said.
The Indians, who have lost to the Vikings only once in school history, defeated Valencia, 1-0, Tuesday in a Foothill League game.
“We’ve proven it,” said defender Dee Dee Sanguinetti of Hart, which beat Valencia on penalty kicks in the Hart tournament two weeks ago.
“They can’t beat us. They beat Canyon so they think they’re hot stuff, but Valencia seems to fear us. They are supposed to be so good. How come they don’t come out to play us? The only time they challenge us is on free kicks.”
Hart (8-5-2, 2-1 in league play) pulled into a three-way tie for first place with Valencia (14-2-1, 2-1) and Canyon.
“The season is still young and I didn’t expect a league championship to come easy,” said Valencia Coach Tony Scalercio. “I expect that it will come down to the wire and if we can continue to play well we will have an opportunity to challenge for the league championship.”
Ali Pavoni scored in the 17th minute when her shot from 30 yards sailed over goalkeeper Jaisa Creps.
“We need to take more shots so when I have the open shot I just take it,” Pavoni said. “I don’t know how it got through. She got her hands on it. I think maybe the sun was in her eyes.”
The Indians had several other opportunities to score.
Forward Mandy Mansfield’s shot from five yards in the 27th minute was blocked by Creps and midfielder Sarah Dean saw one of her shots saved by a defender and another sail just outside the right post.
The Indians outshot the Vikings, 11-6, but an inability to score off 13 corner kicks kept the game close.
Valencia had difficulty creating good offensive opportunities. When the Vikings had a legitimate scoring chance their shots didn’t have enough power to get past goalkeeper Cassondra Kaeding, who had five saves.
The Vikings’ biggest problem was their poor execution of set plays, including kicking four corner kicks out of bounds.
“Our strength is converting set pieces and we couldn’t convert them,” Scalercio said. “Hart is a very good team and it’s very difficult to beat them on their field.”
Valencia’s best chance came on a corner kick in the final minute. The Vikings got two shots off. The first was blocked by a defender and the second was saved by Kaeding.