Benefield: SRJC soccer star Amanda Galbraith learning to channel her passion

Google “Amanda Galbraith soccer” and the most telling picture comes up.

In it, Galbraith, No. 16 on the Santa Rosa Junior College women’s soccer team, is fighting her way through two Folsom Lake defenders. Their knees are penning her in while their arms seem to be clawing at Galbraith’s. But Galbraith, wearing her trademark white headband, is pushing back - arms into the defenders’ midsections, left knee driving into the only gap she’s being given, forcing her way forward.

I have no idea what happened seconds after this shot was taken, but I have an educated guess. I’ll bet Galbraith sliced her way between the two defenders, made a beeline for the goal and launched one.

“I like to shoot the ball,” Galbraith said, chuckling.

Does she ever.

Galbraith, who played high school soccer at Casa Grande, has launched 62 shots in 15 games this season. Second highest total on that list? Sixteen shots. But she makes good on her chances - she’s converted 22 times, which ranks third in the state.

Add to that tally her six assists and Galbraith has 50 points on the season, the second-highest total in state rankings.

Galbraith is the most dangerous offensive weapon in the Big 8, a conference the 7-2-1 Bear Cubs sit atop heading into a home contest with Cosumnes River today.

And if coach Crystal Howard had her way, Galbraith would shoot more, not less.

“All of her goals are inside the 18,” she said. “She has a big range but she likes that hard-nose finish.”

As a sophomore, other coaches know she’s coming - she typically has more than one defender draped all over her.

“She gets a lot of attention from other teams, defensively,” Howard said.

“She knows they are going to triple-, double-team her,” she said. “She has to work a lot harder (this year). They defend her all different ways, but she has to adjust.”

And sometimes, the way a team adjusts is to get physical.

“They are enamored of her ability, so that they have to do that little extra to knock her off the ball,” Howard said.

“She has to protect herself, but at the end of the day we want to make sure she stays on the field,” she said.

But Howard acknowledges that Galbraith is such a threat that other coaches have used tactics to try to get into her head. Sometimes it goes “above and beyond what they need to do against her.”

It can get to Galbraith, who says she plays with “passion.”

That passion also puts her at the top of a stat list in another category: yellow cards. She has four on the season.

“A lot of the refs do know of me, so I’m already on their radar. That does make it harder for me coming into the games,” she said. “Each game I have been really working on that. It’s just not worth it.”

Galbraith knows this from experience. Last season she got a second caution in the Bear Cubs’ overtime thriller against Evergreen Valley College in the second round of the playoffs.

Two yellows mandates a one-game suspension. She watched from the sidelines as the Bear Cubs lost their next game 2-1 to Modesto, ending their season.

“I still lose sleep over it to this day,” she said. “It impacted the team, having me sent off and not even on the sideline. If it would have been anybody on the team, not just me, it would have impacted the team.”

So Galbraith is working on honing her fire - making sure it burns in a way that doesn’t flare up and hurt the team. But she doesn’t want to lose her spark, either.

“I think a lot of times, that is one of my weaknesses. It’s something that this season I’m really focusing on and trying not to get frustrated and stay composed,” she said. “Everybody plays better when they are having fun.”

She said some of her competitiveness is borne of the pressure she puts on herself.

“I want to win. I have very high expectations for myself,” she said. “When you perform under pressure, it’s the best feeling when you succeed.”

Galbraith credited Howard with helping her grow - into a player who keeps the fire but not one that lets her team get burned by it.

“Crystal Howard is the best coach I’ve ever had,” she said. “She’s helped me grow as a soccer player; my personality out on the field.”

Example: At Folsom Lake on Tuesday, the Bear Cubs needed to come away with a win or a tie to stay atop the Big 8.

Still, they went down a goal early.

“In the Folsom game, I thought it was an amazing game from start to finish,” Howard said. “(Galbraith) understood, she put the team on her back and got the tying goal. She got fouled and she got up and kept playing. I think that’s why she scored.”

Howard almost didn’t get Galbraith.

Early in her junior year at Casa, Galbraith committed and signed a national letter of intent to play at Sonoma State. But she later had second thoughts and they came at a price.

Backing out of her commitment to SSU meant that Galbraith could have either gone to the JC, earned her associate degree and kept four years of eligibility, or lost a year of soccer by enrolling at another four-year college.

Although it was not how she would have scripted it, Galbraith sees her time as a Bear Cub as a positive.

“I feel like being here and not leaving right away has helped me appreciate where I live and who I’ve met and the people I’ve been surrounded by,” she said.

But it hasn’t changed her desire to take her game to another level, another locale.

UNLV took note. Galbraith is committed to play for the Rebels next fall.

“They offered me everything I could ask for,” she said. “It’s perfect.”

But first, she’s got business to attend to for the Bear Cubs.

The goal? A Final Four appearance. They came up a game short last year - the game Galbraith had to sit out. She hasn’t forgotten. She speaks of redemption - both personal and for the team.

“We need to work hard for what we deserve,” she said.

And playing hard? Galbraith’s got that covered.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”