The girls varsity soccer team defeated Lynbrook High 3-0 at home on Jan. 31.
A highlight of the game was that every girl got to play, and they all played excellently and stuck to the plan, head coach Mario Lorente said. It was a good win by the girls, and the team played a solid game, he added.
“I’m happy about it,” Lorente said. “I always want more. So I noticed our conversion rates (goals out of shots taken) have been pretty low, like 7%, 14%; so we’re taking a lot of shots on goal, and we’re not converting. So in my head, that’s the one thing I’m worried about, is that we took a lot of shots, I would say at least 20, and got three (goals).”
When Lynbrook players were separated, many girls varsity players took advantage of this situation and rushed towards the enemy net.
The game plan was simple defense, which is where the girls don’t step up to the ball and don’t play too aggressively, Lorente said. This is what Lorente calls “boring defense,” he added.
“They (MHS Girls Varsity) stay back, and the girls (opponents) can’t beat them,” Lorente said. “Our girls are too good to be beaten 1v1, so that’s what I always tell them: simple defense. The other game plan is simple passes through the middle, and then we need to finish. So two of the three (goals), we definitely did, and we finished.”
When Lynbrook players were caught off guard, much of the team applied this “boring defense” strategy and rushed towards the opponent’s net to seize goals.
Junior and striker Madeline Garrison thought the game went well, she said. Part of the team’s plan was to stay calm and not get upset with each other, she said.
“We’re all like a big old family,” Garrison said. “I think it (the team’s chemistry) makes us better. I think it gets better every practice. We’re always laughing; we’re always having fun.”
The team does a lot of team-bonding and strategy building, Lorente said. The team is now doing more drills just because a lot of the tactics and team building is already done, he added.
“I tailor every one of our drills to something that we need to work on based on what I’ve seen in a game,” Lorente said. “So we have so many games that I record them, so I get to look at and see, ‘Okay, they’re not passing the ball through the middle.’ So now I have to get to work on a drill that’s going to get them from the defensive zone to the mid zone to the attacking zone … I think that those very much help them.”
The game went pretty good and the team fought really hard, senior and right outside defender Akira Garcia said.
“I try to just play good with everybody,” Garcia said.
When asked to give advice to younger players, Lorente encourages them to join a league and to play every season, he said.
“If you want to do it (soccer), it’s simple, it’s effort, put in the effort, go to every practice, play,” Lorente said. “There are two seasons a year, play in both seasons, don’t take time off, and just go that way. You don’t have to play for the top clubs. You don’t have to do anything special. It’s just good old-fashioned hard work.”
