Freshmen, that is.

What’s up: Currently ranked No. 5 in the county, Los Al opened the Mater Dei Premier Invitational with a 2-0 victory over San Clemente starting three freshmen midfielders, coach Steve Soler said.

The players: They were No. 2 Natalle Donaldson, No. 19 Kori Meacham and No. 26 Lindsey Salcido. Yet another freshman, Taylor Vargo, scored the game’s first goal, and even another, Callie Taylor, saw playing time.

What was said: “We had a lot of girls step up toady,” Soler said. “We’ve been working the girls slowly. We started the freshman on junior varsity and wanted to wait a few games before moving them up. My whole midfield was a freshman line.”

What I say: This is a scary bunch of soccer players. Young, talented, and fast, they are also physical. Not to single her out, but Vargo was called twice for fouls for too physical of play. You usually don’t see a freshman mixing it up like that. Freshman tend to shy away from contact, not create it.

You take these young players, combined with the Griffins older players – captains Katie Peterson and Jessa Yukihiro and junior Ariana Carillo – and this team is one to watch this season, and in years to come.

• Girls soccer: Mater Dei Premier Invitational (Day One recap)
• Girls soccer: Thursday’s roundup
• Girls soccer: San Clemente upended by Los Al, 2-0
• Girls soccer: Mater Dei, Mission Viejo tie, 0-0

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.