SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior Yasmin Azar scored her first varsity hat trick, Micaela Romo added a brace, while Mia Barsotti and Jaycee DeFazio each earned a pair of assists, as St. Francis blanked Cosumnes Oaks, 7-0, in the opening game of Monday's Delta League girls' soccer doubleheader at Cristo Rey High.
The Troubadours, ranked eighth nationally by the United Soccer Coaches, improve to 10-0-2 overall and 5-0 in league play, with all five wins coming by shutout.
The varsity win was followed by an equally dominant 8-0 victory by St. Francis' Gold junior varsity squad. Sofia Rabinovitz and Miley Blough each scored twice, while the Troubies collectively held their guests to no shots.
Azar's hat trick marks her first at any level since she scored four in an 11-0 win over Natomas in the 2021 Inderkum Invitational. She performed this feat as a member of the JV Gold, although it came against a varsity team at that tournament.
Elizabeth Barger and Maggie Koerwitz accounted for the remaining two goals in the varsity opener. Azar scored the game's first two goals, both from Barsotti on opposite ends of the field. She tapped in Barsotti's corner kick in the 13th minute, then finished on a cross in the 17th to craft an initial 2-0 lead.
Azar then assisted the third SF goal of the game, setting up Romo for a counterattack in the 46th. She almost completed her hat trick three minutes later thanks to a perfect cross from DeFazio, but pulled the shot to the right of the cage. Instead, DeFazio and Azar connected in the 55th, minutes after Koerwitz' headed in a Romo corner kick for the 4-0 lead.
St. Francis added two more goals on long bombs down the stretch. In the 58th, Barger blasted a shot from some 30 yards out, just off the left elbow of the penalty box. Then in the 61st, in the wake of a yellow card charged against the CO coaching staff, Romo delivered a direct kick from more than 40 yards.
Ava Hawkinson and Isabella De La Cruz each recorded two saves in their respective halves.
The JV Gold followed with its 8-0 shutout, with Rabinovitz scoring in the fifth and 14th minute to establish an early 2-0 advantage. Camdyn Zucker made it 3-0 in the 18th on an assist from Blough. Blough then followed with a goal of her own in the 20th, slicing and dicing past four different players before driving her way to the cage. The Troubies outshot CO by a 24-0 margin in the first half, holding that 4-0 lead at the break.
St. Francis continued to attack the cage in the early going of the second half, extending its lead to 5-0 on the second Estella Bacsafra corner kick in the 44th. She played the ball short and low, finding Sarah Bashore by the near post. Wolfpack freshman goalkeeper Lauren Tate stopped four straight attempts until the Troubies managed a sixth goal: Chloe Rhodes-Nguyen passed up to Alina Uriarte, who sent in a long shot from the left side.
Rabinovitz assisted goals by Carly Hall in the 58th and Blough in the 70th to close out the SF scoring. JV Gold has now won five straight games by shutout, improving to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in Delta League action.
Monday's doubleheader was a rescheduling of a set originally scheduled for January 4. It kicks off a three-game week for both varsity and JV Gold, which return to action at Davis on Wednesday. Varsity plays at 4 p.m., JV Gold follows at 6 p.m., then JV Red faces the Blue Devils at 7:30 p.m. on Halden Field at Ron & Mary Brown Stadium.
