Hood River Valley High School varsity girls’ soccer team swept Redmond High School at home 3-0 Thursday. Amanda Orand, HRV’s head coach, said it was an improvement from when they last played the Panthers.
In that match-up, HRV scored two but conceded one goal.
“I asked the girls to come out and communicate, be loud and confident at the beginning of the game to really set the tone and they did a pretty good job at that,” said Orand. “Our defense played really well; it was solid. Our goal was to get a shut out which we did and our offense did pretty well.”
Forward Vanesa Preciado scored a hat-trick on behalf of the Eagles. Forward Maria Bishai, midfielder Abby McCormack and defender Karla Barajas each assisted Preciado with her goals.
Learning from their previous encounter against Redmond, Orand said the team struck their shots lower to the ground, avoiding the goalkeeper.
“In our last game against Redmond, we had a lot of shots as well but we took a lot of them and they went right to the goal keeper,” said Orand. “So, in this game specifically we knew they have a keeper with good hands and so we told ourselves in order to score we’re going to have to place them low and in the corners because she’s strong in the air.”
With current standings, HRV is predicted to make the playoffs in second place but there may still be a few hurdles for the Eagle squad to jump through, said Orand.
“We’re cautiously optimistic for the playoffs because anything can happen. The Dalles is sitting at third, Pendleton has a few players who were injured when we played them who are fast,” said Orand. “They’re improving as the season goes on just like our girls are doing. We have to look at each game as a fresh start and a new team cause we’re different individual every day.”
“The team has to push themselves to play quickly and at their highest level if they want to get far in the playoffs,” said Orand.
HRV will travel to Pendleton High School Oct. 29 and host The Dalles on Oct. 31 the regular season finale, 6:30 p.m.
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