The night they dedicated the season to Scammacca, the Golden Eagles clinched the Sierra Foothill League championship and Saturday night at Cosumnes River College, they captured another title by defeating No. 3 Davis 1-0 for the Division I Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
“It's a great feeling. This team is awesome. We love our coaches and we had our ups and downs throughout this season, but we're super excited to win this again,” said Del Oro goalkeeper Gray Willson. “Not only did we want to win it just for ourselves, but we wanted to win it for our former coach as well.”
Del Oro’s road to a second consecutive section championship was not an easy one, but the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles overcame adversity and managed to win three matches against opponents with a higher seed. Del Oro also shut out every opponent during its playoff run.
“These girls have the heart and dedication just to work for each other,” Del Oro coach Megan Harris said. “These girls just grind and compete, even at training. They're out there grinding every step of the way. They just have so much heart and determination.”
The lone goal of the match came from senior Kiana Faucette in the first 10 minutes of the match.
“Scoring that early gives us motivation to keep going and it gives us confidence that we can just attack more consistently,” Faucette said. “We did almost the exact same thing last year in the championship where we scored in the first 10 minutes.”
Faucette and the rest of Del Oro’s attack bombarded Davis keeper Sky Avalos for the majority of the first half, but the senior lived up to her nickname of “The Wall” and held the Golden Eagles to just the one goal.
Del Oro’s backline was able to preserve the lead and was seemingly impenetrable for the second half, as Davis had limited scoring opportunities.
Senior defender Megan Matthews and junior midfielder Leila Hawkins led the Del Oro defense and stymied any Davis attack before it became too much of a threat.
“Megan is a great leader on this team from when we go out to team dinners to leading on the field,” Harris said of Matthews. “She is the mama bear of the team and she shows that out on the field. She's been part of the program all four years with the varsity team, and this year she has just excelled.”
“As a goalkeeper, my job is to help organize the backline and they all did an incredible job tonight,” Willson said. “They all played super well and they made things easier on me.”
Both Del Oro (12-1-3) and Davis (15-2-3) earn automatic bids to the CIF NorCal Regional Tournament, which begins Tuesday. The Golden Eagles made a run to the D-I NorCal semifinals last season and are confident that they can go on another deep run and potentially even bring a NorCal title back to Loomis.
“We're hungry for more. We’ve won this section back-to-back years but we're not done yet,” Willson said. “We're gonna go back to practice Monday, work hard, and hopefully keep this going and win another championship.”
Said Harris, “We're doing one day at a time with this group and that's all we've ... Click here to read full article
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