Jill Aguilera, former Woodside star, lighting up Pac-12

This should come as no surprise after she closed the 2019 season on a tear. In Arizona’s final five Pac-12 matches, she twice tallied two-goal games. She finished by ranking second on the team with nine goals.

“I think she’s building off last year,” Arizona head coach Tony Amato said. “But if you look at how she closed last year [in Pac-12 play] … against those teams, she was getting goals and assists. And she is just building off that.”

Despite a 10-month layoff, Aguilera hit the ground running at the start of the delayed season. In the Wildcats’ season opener, a 4-1 win over Grand Canyon University Feb. 4, she totaled one goal and one assist. She followed that by scoring both goals in a 2-0 win over University of Texas-El Paso Feb. 7.

“Overall, I think I was just very, very eager to get back out on the field and play with my teammates,” Aguilera said. “We worked so hard in the fall to do as much as we could surrounding COVID. And I think us finally being able to get back to competing and doing what we love the most is what makes this past year really work out.”

Aguilera doesn’t abide downtime from the sport she loves. Even while at Woodside, while the trend increased for elite soccer talent to not play for their high school teams — opting instead to focus on the club soccer circuit — Aguilera played four varsity seasons, earning two Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division Player of the Year nods for her dedication.

She wasn’t the only one. Woodside won two Central Coast Section titles during her high school career, much in part of an array of club players with the premier Juventus SC (now Juventus Academy Silicon Valley) in Redwood City insisting on playing for their high school team.

“For me, it was mainly because there were seven or eight girls who were on my club team … we all went to high school together at Woodside,” Aguilera said. “And there were other girls in the same age group as us on different club teams within Juventus, and we were all on Woodside. … So, I think that’s what probably kept me [on the school team] because our team was very, very good.”

So, after the 2019 season, with her upcoming senior season in doubt, Aguilera’s next move was simple — go to work. She returned to her current home in San Diego and trained there from March to September, working with an individual trainer who specializes in drills for the forward position. It was there she trained alongside University of Washington junior forward Ruby Hellstrom, who Aguilera and Arizona will be hosting Friday.

Aguilera then returned to the Bay Area, working for two months at Red Morton Park in Redwood City with trainer Alexander Herrera. Then, as soon as women’s soccer got the go-ahead, Aguilera was on a plane Jan. 2 to take a COVID test in Arizona Jan. 3 to get back on the pitch for the start of the 2021 season.

And, having already finished up her bachelor’s degree, Aguilera is getting an early jump in pursuit of her master’s. Since being academically eligible requires being enrolled in classes at Arizona, Aguilera was admitted to the master’s program in real estate development.

“I had thought about it, after my soccer career would be entirely over, going back to school and getting my master’s,” Aguilera said. “But since I was granted an extra year, why not start now? And if I can’t finish at Arizona now, I can always come back to it in the future.”

But Aguilera’s soccer career looks far from over. She’s intent on playing professionally after her Arizona career is completed.

In January, the left-footed forward was claimed by the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women’s Soccer League as a discovery draft player. The current Red Stars roster includes national team midfielder Julie Ertz and former Sacred Heart Prep star, defender Tierna Davidson.

Aguilera said she’s intent on competing for a job with the Red Stars, who own her rights for the next two years. Amato said she has a legitimate shot of catching on with the 2019 NWSL runners-up.

“I think if she continues to improve, yes,” Amato said. “I think she is so strong, so powerful, and so fast, and plus she’s left-footed, those things are hard to come by. So, I think she has a real shot at the next level.”

Coming of Arizona’s first loss of the season — falling 2-1 at home Feb. 26 against UCLA — Aguilera is optimistic about what the Wildcats accomplished in figuring out UCLA’s offensive firepower. The Bruins scored two goals, eight minutes apart, midway through the first half. But Arizona settled down and kept them in check from there.

“For us, the first half definitely wasn’t our best,” Aguilera said. “And I think the two goals we let in were avoidable. Sometimes there are things that, when you give up a lot of goals, when you give up goals in general, there are things that you can’t fix. And for us, the goals that we gave up were fixable. And, in our minds, that’s a good thing because we know we can get better and prevent that in the future … and we’re going to keep moving that, especially against Washington on Friday.

“And the goal we scored, we’ve been working really hard. Our attack has been very, very dangerous in my opinion. And we can break teams down, especially UCLA. And a lot of the times we had other chances, they were very good and very dangerous chances.”

Aguilera earned an assist on Arizona’s lone goal, storming the penalty box as part of a three-pronged attack, along with senior Jada Talley and sophomore Madison Goerlinger, who converted the score.

“As soon as some defenders started coming at Madison — we were getting in the [penalty box] — she found me and then I found her quickly right back,” Aguilera said. “Those really simple combinations can break down the best of teams, and it worked out.”

In Friday’s showdown with Washington, Hellstrom won’t be the only familiar face for Aguilera. Her former Woodside teammate, Jessika Cowart, lists as a senior forward, though she will be out of action and is expected to miss the rest of the year. Also on roster for the Huskies are San Mateo HS graduate Tasia Kravitz and St. Ignatius graduate, and Half Moon Bay native, Caeley Goldstein.