Panthers too much for SSF

Thursday, South City traveled for a match against Burlingame and it became obvious early that the Panthers will be angling for a Bay Division title this season.

Oozing with a lot of young talent, Burlingame scored once in each half, and had a highlight-reel strike denied because of an offside call, as they shut out the Warriors 2-0.

“I was extremely pleased with [our] organized attack,” said Burlingame head coach Philip DeRosa. “[We] played very well together.”

While South City was solid, Burlingame looked extremely dangerous. Amalie Pianim, a freshman, is poised to be a special player. The fact she was playing out of position as an attacking midfielder — DeRosa said she is normally a striker — is a testament to just how good a player she is.

Pianim was the most dangerous player on the field as she sliced her way through South City’s stout defense, either delivering dangerous through balls or making runs into the penalty box herself.

While she seemed reluctant to take shots, she had a couple of golden scoring chances in the first half evaporate, and had no problem setting up her teammates as she assisted on both goals.

Pianim was hardly the Panthers’ only talented player. Another pair of freshmen, Ella Macko and Sofie Rodriguez, manned the two outside fullback spots and were rock solid. Both were calm on the ball and even with the Warriors closing them down, more often than not made the right pass.

Lillian Potter, a junior, teamed with Pianim in the midfield to provide a physical presence as she consistently rode South City players off the ball, won shoulder-to-shoulder challenges, or stepped in front of would-be Warriors’ passes.

“Our starting center midfielder is out, so we had to adjust,” DeRosa said, explaining Pianim playing in the center of the field. “Potter and Amalie, I gave them assignments and they did them perfectly.”

One of those adjustments also included moving Ava Klapper, who normally comes off the bench, into a starting striker spot. Klapper used her speed on the flanks to consistently run onto long through passes and only the play of South City’s strong defensive line kept her off the scoreboard.

Mia Fontana, a junior midfielder-striker, showed in a half how dangerous she could be. She made several outstanding runs, both up the middle and along the left flank. She teamed with Pianim on a one-two combination pass, with Pianim sending a perfect diagonal pass into the path of the charging Fontana, who took a touch to settle and with her second, buried a shot into the far right corner for a 1-0 lead just before halftime.

“We gave one chance to [Fontana] and I knew she would put it in,” said South City head coach Salvador Navarro.

With Fontana sitting out the second half as she continues to round into form coming back from injury, South City managed to get more work done in the midfield. Fatima Waldo-Garcia gave the Warriors a solid presence in the center of the field and she did her share of work winning balls and distributing, but South City could not get striker Alexandra Jara in to many dangerous spots.

“We weren’t connecting up top,” Navarro said. “Our midfielders were not connecting with our forwards.”

The Warriors did not have a lot of dangerous chances, but they did have the first off a first-half corner kick. In the 23rd minute, the corner cross was sent to the top of the Burlingame penalty box where Iliana Sanchez snapped a header on frame. Panthers goaltender Sophia Young was beaten.

But Macko, who was defending on the far right post, cleared the ball away to preserve the scoreless tie.

“Wasn’t that something?” DeRosa said.

The second half was more evenly played. South City did a good job of building in the midfield, but continued to struggle to find Jara, the reigning Ocean Division Forward of the Year.

“I was aware of [Jara],” DeRosa said. “I told the girls, ‘I’m so confident in my defense, if you play solid defense, you don’t need to man mark.’”

South City’s best second-half chance came in the 55th minute, when Jara received a throw-in with the Burlingame penalty, shielded her defender, made the turn and broke in on goal. She sent a cross to the middle of the box where it harmlessly rolled through and was cleared away by the Burlingame back line.

Three minutes later, Burlingame doubled its lead. Pianim took a pass about 35 yards from goal, ran at one defender, using some fancy footwork to not only beat the defense, but left her in a heap on the ground and Pianim continued her run.

As she reached the end line and drew two more defenders, she slotted a perfect cross to the top of the 6-yard box, where Julia Mitchell ran on and poked an easy one-timer into the back of the net.

It looked as if Pianim picked up her third assist of the game as she poked a ball into space where Macko hammered it to the far left corner off the bounce — but the goal was waved off because of offside.

“I was looking forward to this game because South City has been outstanding for two years,” DeRosa said. “I knew this would be a good test.”