High school girls soccer roundup: Cardinal Newman opens NBL play with win against Rancho Cotate

Keeper Dani Gilson didn't allow a goal as Cardinal Newman opened North Bay League play Thursday night with a 4-0 victory against visiting Rancho Cotate.

While Gilson was keeping the Cougars' offense in check, teammates Ella Wright and Keely Roy each scored a goal in the opening 15 minutes. Both Wright and Roy are freshmen.

Coach Paul Dixon has been pleased with his young group of players and he has to be pleased with the way Newman (6-2) has begun league play.

In other NBL games:

MONTGOMERY 4, CASA GRANDE 1

At Petaluma, the Vikings scored three goals in the second half to pull away from the Gauchos and improve to 5-0.

Natalie Barragan had two of the goals after intermission and Tara Ziemer got the final one.

Casa grabbed the early lead on a score by Lauryn Langsten and Montgomery pulled even late in the first half on a goal by Eden Brooker.

The game was close until the final 15 minutes when Montgomery scored two insurance goals.

Barragan's first goal energized her team. It came after a long, accurate pass from Taylor Ziemer.

'That play was the turning point,' coach Pat McDonald said. 'It not only gave us the lead, it was a beautiful pass and shot that got all the players excited. We took control of the game after that.'

Gauchos coach Vinnie Cortezzo said the game was more competitive than the score showed.

'The final score wasn't indicative of the way the game was played,' he said. 'It wasn't a 4-1 game. We made a few mental errors and Montgomery capitalized on those. They were more opportunistic than us.'

While Cortezzo was impressed with the Vikings, he stopped short of saying this was the best Vikings team of recent years.

'I'm not sure yet this group is the strongest,' he said. 'We'll wait and see on that one. I will say they have good attacking players like the Ziemer girls and Brooker. They're a very dangerous team.'

The Gauchos are 3-1 overall.

MARIA CARRILLO 5, WINDSOR 0

At Santa Rosa, the Pumas opened defense of their NBL title with a convincing win.

At intermission, the home team led 3-0. Bria VarnBuhler had two first-half goals. The other was by Maddie Gonzalez.

The second-half goals were by Annika Cerini and Meghan Chang.

It was the first game for the Pumas since returning earlier this week from New Jersey, where they split two games.

'I was a little concerned some of the girls might still be a little fatigued,' coach Debra LaPrath said. 'However, that wasn't the case. We played with a lot of energy.'

LaPrath thinks the best is yet to come for Carrillo (4-1).

'We're still putting it together,' she said. 'We're in the process of plugging some girls into spots. Also, we're working on moving the ball around.'