ORANGE — Newport Harbor girls soccer coach Justin Schroeder and his staff introduced a new style of play this season and the Sailors implemented that style to near perfection in a 3-0 victory over Canyon in a nonleague game Thursday at El Modena High School.
The key elements of the Sailors game plan involve more lateral passing and ball control, rather than kicking the ball deep into the opponents’ end of the field.
The Sailors (3-0-2), who are ranked No. 8 in Orange County, controlled the action for most of the game’s 80 minutes, mostly by making crisp short passes back and forth and side to side.
When the Comaches (2-1-1) tried to mount an attack, the Sailors did a great job of breaking up passes and tormenting the player with the ball.
The Sailors’ back-line players who disrupted the Comanches attack were Maddie Michel, Audrey Herron and Leah Showalter.
“I think when we are on, we can be really frustrating to other teams,” Schroeder said. “One, with obviously us keeping the ball and two, when we don’t have it, making it really tough for them to do anything. I would definitely say this, of the games we played this season, this was a more complete game.”
Newport Harbor set the tone right away, when Lily Achak kicked a soft shot over the keeper’s head and into the net, giving the Sailors a 1-0 lead one minute into the contest.
“My teammate, Bridget Taketa, she put a ball over and then I just touched it and shot it with my right foot,” Achak said. “I’m left-footed, so I didn’t really expect anything. So that was kind of cool.”
Sadie Hoch scored two goals, the first coming in the 28th minute on a penalty kick after Abbi Clap was fouled inside the box.
In the 38th minute, Mia Knox was dribbling toward the goal when a Canyon defender knocked the ball away.
But Hoch was right there to get control and then shoot the ball hard into the net, making the score 3-0.
“My mom always says to hit it hard and low, so we followed that, and it goes in,” said Hoch. She is the daughter of Tisha Venturini Hoch, a member of the U.S. National team that won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the World Cup title in 1999 when the U.S. team defeated China on penalty kicks in the Rose Bowl.
Hoch has committed to play soccer at the University of Texas at Austin.
On Saturday, the Sailors are the host school for the Best in the West Winter Soccer Classic, which runs through Dec. 21.
