SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Yasmin Azar buried a shot from 30 yards out then Mia Barsotti found Brooke Castro on a corner kick, leading St. Francis to a 2-1 win over Christian Brothers in the varsity nightcap of a frigid "Holy Cup" girls' soccer doubleheader at Peter P. Bollinger Stadium Friday night.
The varsity win followed a 4-0 shutout by the Troubadours' junior varsity Gold squad, competing a sweep of the Falcons in the annual rivalry matchup of the city's two major Catholic schools.
St. Francis and Christian Brothers entered the contest as the No. 2 and 3 varsity programs in the Sac-Joaquin Section, according to MaxPreps. The Troubies remain unbeaten at 7-0-2.
Azar put St. Francis on the board in the second minute of the nightcap, collecting a pass from Madeline Welch, then turning to launch a bomb into the top shelf of the CB cage. The Troubies continued to assault the Falcon goal early in the half, finally doubling their lead in the 14th minute. Caitlin Hafenstein's shot was deflected by CB keeper Grace Bettencourt, sending Barsotti to the right corner for a kick. Senior Jaycee DeFazio put a forehead on the ball directly in front of the goal mouth, but Bettencourt was again there for the stop. The save assigned Barsotti to the opposite corner for another set piece. This time, Barsotti deposited the ball into the middle of the box to Castro, who finished for her first goal of the year.
However, the Falcons broke up the Troubies' shutout bid in the 22nd minute, as Brooklyn Horst played a pass to Rachal Davis along the right side. Davis scored to cut the margin to 2-1.
Hafenstein and DeFazio each managed to uncork shots down the stretch in the first half, while Elizabeth Ledesma and Genevieve Muskopf each had near misses for CB. Muskopf's attempt came just 11 seconds before the officials whistled the end of the half. Senior Lily Jensen found Muskopf directly in front of the Troubie goal, but the shot barely slipped above the crossbar.
As temperatures dropped into the mid-30s Fahrenheit in the second half, neither team managed goals. The St. Francis backline of Elizabeth Barger, Giada Pagano, Summer Silvestri and Maggie Koerwitz held their hosts to just three shots, with one of them being a 50-yard blast on a free kick by Emily Mayes in the 77th. SF goalkeeper Isabella De La Cruz came up with the stop.
In contrast to the varsity thriller, JV Gold dispatched Christian Brothers in relative decisive fashion, with sophomore Sofia Rabinovitz and freshman Miley Blough each netting two goals. Jada Dwyre assisted on a goal in each half.
Rabinovitz completed her brace in the first 16 minutes of play. She took a pass from Dwyre then attacked along the right side in the fourth to put the Troubies on the board. Then in the 16th, Madeline Squaglia found Rabinovitz dead center in the box for the game's second goal.
To her credit, Squaglia put the Falcon defense to the test, unloading five of SF's 10 unanswered shots to start the game. Then early in the second, she was fouled in the center of the box. JV Gold head coach Alex Hoang assigned Blough to the penalty mark, with Blough easily beating keeper Veronica O'Neill on the kick.
Blough scored her second goal, and the game's fourth, in the 54th. Dwyre's throw-in sailed into the box among Squaglia, Blough and Camdyn Zucker. With her back to the goal, Blough got her left foot on the ball, sent it over her right shoulder, and into the back of the net. Rabinovitz and Blough now have season goals totals of 10 and nine following Friday's win.
Defensively, the Troubies held the Falcon JV to just two shots, with one coming on a set play in the first. With a little more than a minute left in the half, freshman Celsey Drew fired a free kick that eluded SF keeper Maggie Buffleben but rolled wide left of the target.
All three St. Francis soccer teams were in action on Friday, with JV Red scoring a 3-0 shutout at Inderkum. Additionally, the Troubies' JV Gold basketball team played next door in CB's La Salle Classic tournament. Coverage of these events are available elsewhere on GoTroubies.com.
Both varsity and JV Gold teams break for the holidays, returning to action in a home Delta League doubleheader on January 4.
