Woodside girls' soccer team still potent

Reputation can only carry a team so far. Because of the cyclical nature of high school sports — players graduating, transferring or just entering high school — past performance is no indication of future success.

So just because the Woodside girls’ soccer team won the 2022 Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division title, there are no guarantees the Wildcats will win the 2023 crown.

But based off their season opener, the Wildcats should be just fine for the upcoming season.

Scoring two goals in each half and receiving a season-opening hat trick from Mariam Yusuf, Woodside cruised to a 4-0 win over Half Moon Bay.

“We’re just trying to establish ourselves as a team,” said Woodside assistant coach Ignacio Navarrete, who is filling in for his brother, longtime Woodside head coach Jose Navarrete, as he recovers from a medical issue.

“Just trying to get players into a rhythm.”

Not surprisingly, it took a few minutes for the Wildcats to get into the flow of the game and once they did, Half Moon Bay (1-1) simply tried to weather the storm.

No one is going to replace the graduated Elise Evans, the reigning Daily Journal Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year who was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year after her first season at Stanford. But Yusuf is making a case to at least help fill the scoring void left by Evans. A sophomore striker, Yusuf brings a physical presence to the center of the Woodside attack and she showed a knack for finishing Tuesday. Strong on the ball, she received the ball in the penalty box several times in the opening minutes, but the HMB defense did a good job of shutting her down.

But the Cougars couldn’t hold her down for the whole game.

“She’s a good goal scorer,” Navarrete said. “She works really hard in training. She created chances for herself.”

She opened the scoring in the 21st minute, when Sofia Bellver Eymann threaded a perfect through ball through the middle of the HMB defensive line. Yusuf raced past a pair of defenders, collected the ball and hammered a shot into the upper left corner for the 1-0 lead.

Bellver Eymann and Yusuf hooked up again in the 30th minute, but the play was initially set up by a run from Pilar Vanheusden along the left flank before sending a pass to Bellver Eymann. She carried the ball toward the end line before cutting a pass back in front of the goal, where Yusuf was positioned and simply side-footed a redirect into the net for a 2-0 lead at halftime.

She netted her third goal 15 minutes into the second half, checking her run to stay onside before Lilly Lyssand sent a through ball that Yusuf latched onto and slammed it off the underside of the crossbar and into the net for the 3-0 lead.

Bellver Eymann rounded out the scoring in the 59th minute with a hustle goal. Vanheusden aimed a perfect diagonal pass from the middle of the field to the Bellver Eymann on the left flank. She cut into the penalty box and let loose a shot that was parried away by HMB goaltender Frankie DeRosa.

But Bellver Eymann was there to collect the rebound and ripped a shot past DeRosa for the game’s final goal.

Navarrete was pleased to see Bellver Eymann’s and Vanheusden’s work in the midfield. Both did a masterful job of taking defenders off the dribble and sending passes into space.

“They have high work rates,” Navarrete said. “They get into those open spaces. Good distributors of the ball.”

The final margin of victory could have been much greater, but DeRosa did a good job of not letting the game get out of hand as she finished with nine saves.

When she had to come off with an injury following the fourth goals, field player Adair Gress took over between the posts and added two saves of her own.