Sammy Mendoza Shines in PK Shootout at Muskogee
/Sandite sophomore goalie Sammy Mendoza is making a name for himself as a top penalty kick defender, saving six tries over his first three matches of the season.
After notching three PK saves in an overtime shootout at Muskogee on Tuesday, he saved a regulation penalty kick against Metro Christian Thursday night to earn his first clean sheet in a 2-0 road upset.
“He’s a lockdown keeper when it comes to penalties,” says second-year head coach Brent Lollis. “He has earned his spot for sure.”
The Sandites are now 3-0 in the regular season after going 3-0-1 in preseason scrimmages.
On Tuesday they battled to a 1-1 draw against the Roughers (1-1) with Nathaniel McClaren scoring the lone goal in regulation before going to PKs for the second time.
McClaren, Elias Villanueva, and Nic Roberts found the back of the net for the Sandites while Mendoza recorded three saves for the win.
As a 4A playoff qualifier last season, Metro Christian (1-1) could make a case as the favorite to win Thursday night, but the Patriots were stifled by a stingy back four that only allowed four shots on goal, each of which was saved by Mendoza.
Elgin Hernandez gave his team the lead in the 8th minute, then McClaren scored a header off a corner kick from Zac Ritter with 10:13 left in the first half.
“It’s huge,” said Lollis. “We watched film on them so we knew some things we wanted to try and we got the two goals in the first half. As a coach, you’d like them to come out in the second half and get a couple more, so we’ll work on keeping our foot on the gas, but we’ll take a win.”
The Patriots nearly connected on a shot from Charlie Coffman late in the first half that traveled over Mendoza’s fingers, but it caught the crossbar and ricocheted clear.
They had another opportunity with a penalty kick from Brayden Haveman late in the match but Mendoza’s save preserved the shutout.”
“I don’t think they’ve reached their potential yet,” said Lollis. “I think they would tell you we have more to give. “
Girls
The Lady Sandites suffered their first loss of the year Thursday night after surrendering two goals in the opening minutes to last year’s 4A State Runners-Up.
Sydney Maddox, a Missouri-Kansas City signee, put her team on top just two minutes into the match. Sasha Redman added a second goal soon after and the remaining 75 minutes were scoreless for both teams.
“We started slow,” said head coach Cisco Chavez. “We’ve got to come out faster.”
The Lady Sandites are short several starters, though most are expected to return to action after Spring Break. The exception being last year’s leading scorer, Lainey Stanfill, who will miss the season following an ACL surgery.
“Overall, we held them to two (goals) for 75 minutes so I’m happy with the result. The girls didn’t give up and they fought.”
The Lady Sandites out-shot the Patriots 17 to 9 but most were off-target and Berkely Seefeldt made six saves for the clean sheet.
“We’ve just got to find the back of the net,” said Chavez. “We’ve got to find more goal scorers. But overall, we’re on pace for everything. We’re dominating possession, we’re dominating shots - we’ve just got to find the back of the net.”
“This is a good Metro team and we knew coming into the game that this would be a very physical battle.”
On Tuesday the Sandites won a 4-1 battle at Muskogee (1-1) behind Ava Watts’s second hat trick of the season.
The Roughers took a 1-0 lead off a corner kick early in the match and held the lead till the final minutes of the half when Watts scored her first two goals. Alyssa Cunningham and Watts scored again in the second half.
The Sand Springs girls will return to action Thursday the 23rd when they look to defend their title as the reigning Collinsville tournament champions.
