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Foothill will continue its undefeated reign after a 3-0 win over Cal High Wednesday night.
The girls varsity team scored one goal in the first period and two in the second, staving off Cal High from scoring. The team has only allowed two goals from opponents all season.
They are 14-0-0 and 9-0-0 in East Bay Athletic League play.
“I just try to keep them focused,” Coach Ron Lambert said prior to the game. “We take it one game at a time.”
ESPN has ranked the team No. 1 for the past two weeks out of all high schools across the country.
Lambert’s tried to shield his team from letting the news get into their heads, saying he’s “kept it on the down low.”
So what makes this team so special and unique?
“They’ve been staying focused,” Lambert said. “A lot of people ask me what’s different from last year to this year. I just think they’ve noticed the last couple of years that we’ve come up short by just a little bit, whether it be league or NCS, and these guys are focused on winning it all.”
Winning it all and trying to block out the naysayers. Recently, the team was given a hard time for their overpowering 9-0 win against crosstown rivals Amador Valley Jan. 21 with some suggesting players should have been changed around in the second half of the game. But Lambert said the team isn’t letting the critics get them down, rather it’s fueling their drive and energy.
Out of the 19-member team, 13 are seniors.
“Out of the 13, 12 are committed to Division 1 schools,” Lambert said.
And if the coach is proud, so is the technical director for the Pleasanton Rage girls’ soccer club, where nine of the seniors play on the same U18 team.
“We’re one of the top clubs in the country,” said director Phillippe Blin. “Everybody knows that because of these girls, and these seniors. This is a group of seniors that puts the Rage kids on the map. Our club is a big club, about 2,000 kids, and these girls have definitely become role models for the younger age group. They have a huge impact.”
Carlee Payne co-captains the team along with Sophie Metz. Payne, a senior, will sign a letter of intent next week to play soccer for Brigham Young University. And while she’s excited to attend the university next fall, she’s making sure to cherish this moment in her life.
“All of us seniors have been together since we were under-7s, under-8s,” Payne said. “We’ve grown a bond that is so close. We’re basically a family–we’re best friends on the field, off the field. We all want to play for each other, win for each other.”
And while she and her teammates feel the pressure that’s been placed on their backs, they’re not taking any game lightly.
“All of us are nervous before any game,” she said. “We don’t come out light for any game. In soccer, you can lose to anyone. You just gotta come out hard and play your game no matter what.”
The team’s next game is 6 p.m. Saturday at Carondelet High School.
For more on the team, visit the Foothill website by clicking here
For more on the ESPN FAB 50 rankings, click here
Rage hosts Letters of Intent signing Feb. 5
Joining the 12 Foothill High School senior girls signing scholarship letters of intent are nine other graduating seniors for a special Pleasanton Rage signing night at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Pleasanton Marriott, 11950 Dublin Canyon Road.
Since 2001, Rage has had 133 graduates sign letters of intent to play for national colleges and universities.
Foothill High School
Megan Barrett–UC Davis
Krista Bormann–Southern Oregon University
Samantha Cloutier–George Washington University
Olivia Klei–Santa Clara University
Ashley Loughmiller–Washington State University
Amanda Luxford–Arizona State University
Ashlyn Mazur–University of San Francisco
Rachel McGlinchy–San Diego State University
Sophie Metz–UCLA
Carlee Payne–BYU
Amanda Simat–San Jose State University
Amador Valley High School
Marissa Fraticelli–San Diego State University
Caitlyn Harper–Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Sierra High School
Rachel Clark–UC Berkeley
Leigh High School
Maddie Fox–University of Notre Dame
Piedmont Hills High School
Megan Jurado–San Diego State University
Evergreen Valley High School
Raylene Larot–University of Nevada, Reno
Berkeley High School
Esther Leon–University of Nevada, Reno
Go Falcons!
What a great program!!!!!!wish we could say the same for the boys!!!!!!
Foothill Parent, are you talking about the Foothill soccer program or BUSC? If you’re talking about BUSC, why doesn’t the club start trying to cultivate home grown talent instead of ‘recruiting’ so heavily at such an early age from outside the area? Although RAGE does it too, it appears that there are many local girls playing RAGE AND attending Foothill. How can you field a competitive high school team when so many players don’t reside within the city limits? It seems that BUSC marginalizes at an early age those kids who actually live here. What is up with that?
What is this game coming to. I can’t believe Foothill would run up the score on the poor team from Cal. I mean 3-0 – they should be ashamed. All you need is one goal to win, so Foothill’s coach should have pulled his starters at 1-0. What kind of lesson are we teaching these kids 😉
I mean the Foothill Boys varsity team… And I do agree with you about taking kids from other cities don’t all cities have their own programs..seriously.
And in regards to a 3-0 score is not that bad come on in any game the advantage can always turn on you very quickly…in regards to the 9-0 game against Amador I kind of agree but then again if it were the other way around I am sure they would have done the same…I have had children at both schools and had the oppotunity to watch a few games going either way.. its tough being cross town rivals but then again people it is only a sport…it is not as if one school has bragging rights for the past 10 years in a specific sport.
Funny all of the churn around the 9-0 Foothill – Amador score last week.
My daughter has been on the losing side in Foothill lacrosse last year….something like 20-4. We left the field thinking what a great team Amador had and how much better they were than Foothill. We didn’t say they should stop scoring and pass the ball around. The Amador team was on a mission and they won NCS which was well deserved.
Likewise, the Foothill soccer team is on a mission to win NCS and be the #1 team in the country. It is something special. The girls who don’t play, don’t complain…..they are on the #1 team in the nation, get get competition in practice which will make them better next year. Foothill – keep rolling Foothill….don’t get distracted from your goal by others who try to drag you down!
Sport nut very well put…just as Foothill parent said if the wheels were turned….
How we as parents need to put it HS sports are competitive and if you can’t take the heat don’t play in the fire!!!!!!!!most kids will need to learn to win gracefully, be proud and enjoy the moment and they will also need to learn how to lose gracefully, be proud for playing hard and learn from the experience…
Both Amador and Foothill are great schools and produce great athletes so lets support both schools and be proud that we have 2 great schools to choose from.
BUSC has no obligation to the local high schools soccer programs. Their motivation is to have the most competative soccer club possible; they compete with clubs all over CA and sometimes the nation. Clubs that are not competative tend to fall apart at older ages. And while there might be a player or two from “out of town” the large majority are home grown; I would compare the the ratio to Rage; Foothill has a great bumper crop of young girls soccer players, but this is a cycle and they will have to rebuild the program after next year, maybe Amador in the 9 – 0 winner next year. Divison 1 youth soccer is highly competative; directors and coaches are well paid; and like any other job…win and you stay…lose and you are out, what do you expect the club to do? Take less talented local players and pass on talented out of town players? At least at BUSC kids are allowed, if not encouraged to play other sport, over in Danville and many other clubs; a contract is signed for a full year of soccer.
My guess is that the poster complaining about “out of town” kids has a kid of his owned that has tried out and not made the Divison 1 program; it is the elite youth soccer program in Pleasanton, the Divison 3 program is great, in the end, there is always a place to have fun and play soccer at BUSC. I am looking forward to my sons high school soccer experience; but Club soccer is always a much more competative program and that is were the boys learn soccer and where any college players are going to come from; high school soccer is just a way to keep busy until club starts. If you want proof; check the U18 national team pools on the US Soccer website; almost 100% of the players have their clubs listed, not their high schools.