Lady Sandite Soccer enjoying winningest season in school history
/This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
Ten wins down, seven to go.
The Charles Page High School girls’ soccer team reached ten wins for the first time in school history Friday night at Pioneer Stadium, beating Stillwater 2-0 in district action to improve to 10-3.
In the post-game huddle, after getting doused by the team’s water bottles in celebration, a soaking wet Cisco Chavez had a simple request for his Lady Sandites.
“Win out.”
A tall order for a program that has only sniffed the post season a few times in school history, but Chavez has insisted from the beginning of the season that this team has the potential to do something special.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Chavez. “I’m so proud of the girls and the coaching staff.”
The previous best mark for the Sandites was 9-6, first accomplished under Lucas Gray in 2010 and repeated by Bobby Behrens’s team in 2016.
More important than the team’s ten wins overall is its 3-1 record in district play. The Sandites haven’t pulled off that feat since 2012, the last time they qualified for the postseason.
“I’m just proud,” said Chavez. “There’s no words. I’m emotional because these girls have been working hard through everything and I’m so proud of them. “It doesn’t matter who I call on, they all give me their everything.”
Sand Springs dominated the Pioneers (5-8, 2-3) offensively and spent 59 minutes of play on Stillwater’s half of the field. However, they had few shots on goal thanks to a stingy Stillwater defense.
The game remained scoreless until sophomore Ava Watts snuck in a lefty shot with only 56 seconds left in the half for her 16th goal of the year.
Stillwater opened the second half much more aggressively and Chrissen Harland broke through the Sandite backfield 12 minutes into the half to threaten an equalizer, but Christina Thompson made the save on Stillwater’s only shot on goal.
Freshman Lainey Stanfill connected on her 19th goal of the season in the 57th minute and nearly added another nine minutes later but put it just a hair over the top.
The Sandites have now outscored their opponents 46 to 16 this season with six clean sheets.
“We have an outstanding defense,” said Chavez. “We continue to tell them that they’re one of the best in the state. They’re one of the youngest in the state defensively. That D is really no joke.”
The Sandites’ schedule won’t get any easier in the coming week. Next up is a home battle with district leader Union (10-5, 5-0) on Tuesday before traveling to Edmond North (9-1, 4-1) on Thursday.
“We’ve got Union Tuesday, it’s going to be a really tough game. Hopefully we can pull out a victory and try to secure a home playoff game.”
