‘We’re not here to play’: St. Francis reasserts supremacy, topping Mitty thanks to two first-half goals
SAN JOSE — Until further notice, St. Francis is still the team to beat in the Central Coast Section.
The Lancers, coming off a dream season where they swept the West Catholic Athletic League, Central Coast Section Division I and CIF NorCal Division I titles, are undefeated and undaunted once again.
Their latest victory was a symbolic one, as it came against Archbishop Mitty, their opposition for all three of those titles last season.
To start off the rivalry this year, St. Francis took the short trip down Interstate 280 and scored two goals in the first 20 minutes, setting the tone for a 2-1 win that kept the Lancers on top of the WCAL in the early going.
“We’re not here to play,” said midfielder Penelope Correa, who scored St. Francis’ second goal on a nifty header off a service into the box by Maya Meltz. “And although 2-0 is a really dangerous score to go into at the half, I felt like we had great control of the game in the first half, and I wasn’t that worried at all.”
The Lancers (7-0, 2-0) looked every bit the part of a perennial champion in the first half especially, dominating possession and taking the initial lead just seven minutes in when Grier Gowdy deposited a loose ball into the back of the net from close range.
But Mitty (4-2, 1-1) managed to regroup at halftime and gave St. Francis something to think about in the second half. A game that seemed decided after the first 40 minutes got much more interesting when Zuri Brandt’s left-footed shot beat St. Francis keeper Sophia Malloy to her left, putting the Monarchs down a goal with 23 minutes to play.
“We raised our level a lot in the second half and really took the game to them,” Mitty coach JT Hanley said. “Our build up for our goal was probably the best build up of the season and the best finish. I liked our shape. I liked our work rate. A lot of young players out there today that this is their first time in a game like this, and I liked what I saw. They really passed the test.”
The Monarchs continued to knock on the door down the stretch. St. Francis adopted a conservative defensive shape as the Lancers endeavored to preserve their remaining lead, but Mitty forced St. Francis to defend multiple set pieces in the final 10 minutes.
Mitty’s young players may have passed the test of settling in and competing with St. Francis. But the Lancers’ execution in the final moments demonstrated why they aced the final exam over and over last season.
“It’s always difficult coming here,” St. Francis coach Carlos Barboza said. “They put a ton of energy and effort, so it’s difficult to play at Mitty and against an opponent like Mitty. But we did our best to stick with our DNA and the way we like to approach most games, which is a possession-based style. The first half, we had a little more control.
“We’re extremely thin right now. So as the second half went on, we were a little tired. It was harder to keep the ball, and obviously that goal made it interesting. But I think overall, we had majority control, so that’s usually what we try to do.”
Though the league is only two games in, this win puts the Lancers in the driver’s seat for another WCAL title. Nothing is certain, of course, and St. Francis will see Mitty again in Mountain View in three weeks.
But based on the available evidence, not much has changed. The road to the WCAL, CCS and quite possibly NorCal will likely go through the Lancers once again this year.
“We just need to beat everyone in WCAL,” Correa said. “We can’t go down from here. We need to show people why we’ve won everything in the last three years. We just need to go from there and win everything again.”
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