Girls soccer: Rangers shut down Stayton with tough defense

Girls play at La Salle tomorrow beginning at 6:15 p.m.

By Darrell Jackson

The Estacada News, Oct 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Beginning the second half of the season with the goal of qualifying for the playoffs, the Estacada girl’s soccer teams used a ferocious defense to defeat Stayton 3-0 on Oct. 7 at Estacada High School.

“This is the second half of the season and if we have any hope of getting into the post season, we have to start winning matches,” Estacada head coach Rick Mudrow said. “You can’t afford to lose to teams that you should beat and I told the girls that before the game tonight.”

The Rangers jumped out early when Kayla McCarty lobbed a pass down the sideline in stride to a darting Vanessa Perez. Perez took the ball into the corner and fired a crossing pass in front of the Stayton goal where Madison Haga put the ball high and to the right past Stayton goalie Edith Pelayo with just over 24 minutes left in the first half.

“We have been working on our passing since July and it really kicked in tonight,” Mudrow said. “That has been the weakest part of our game in the first half of the season and tonight they really made crisp passes.”

Stayton tried to jump on the Rangers early in the second half when Alyssa Tuss threw a pass directly in front of the Estacada goal, but Kelsey Hernandez fired a shot that sailed wide of the goal, seven minutes into the half.

Two minutes later, Stayton’s Gabby Esparza took a centering pass right in front of Schuler who came out of the goal box and made a sliding save, stealing the ball from Esparza.

“[Schuler] made some big saves on the shots she did face,” Mudrow said. “She has really been playing strong and our defense made it a lot easier on her tonight.”

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