Thirteen turns out to be a lucky number for DHS soccer team

Feet sprinting, hair flying, Sophia Hernandez bolted closer towards the goal. Still near the middle of the field, Hernandez catapulted the ball into the air before it soared across the field and into the net.

Hernandez’s goal was only one in a 13-0 game between victorious DHS and away team Grant on April 17. Within the first few minutes of the game, the DHS junior varsity soccer team had already scored their first goal. This pattern continued while goals kept being tapped in, even one accidentally assisted by a Grant player herself.

In the second half, Jade Bugsch scored back-to-back goals and also took a lot of shots on goal. Although Grant’s goalie stopped the majority of Davis’s opportunities to score, Bugsch, along with Claire Buhlman, Meghan Balderama and Suleikha Sutter persisted with their constant stream of shots.

Although Davisites strolling past the field stopped to cheer on their team, it was clear the team needed little extra encouragement. Playing almost the entire game in Grant’s defensive half, DHS dominated from early on.

“I was [expecting a victory] because we’ve played Grant before and won,” Hernandez said.

Coach Robert Smith agrees. “The competition level was minimal. They did what we asked them to do, which was move the ball around and create crosses,” he said.

As the game wore on, it was clear Grant was continuing to struggle. In the fourth quarter, the ball hit one Grant teammate directly in the face. In addition, Grant seemed to lose energy as DHS repeatedly scored. The away team also had to contend with the fact that they had a nearly empty bench of substitutes to provide relief.

“It’s hard to judge [a game] when the other team is so much weaker,” Smith said. However, “they played well,” he said.