Lady Devils achieve their four-peat

By Rayan Tilmatine,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Davis High women’s soccer competed against Granite Bay at Rocklin High to declare the winner of the Sac Joaquin Section finals.

DHS came into the game undefeated, with three straight section final wins in its arsenal. Granite Bay had a record of 13-1-4 and had just come off an intense win against Pleasant Grove in overtime.

Davis knew it would be up against a talented competitor. “We knew they would ‘park the bus’ and keep all their players on defense. So we had to play with a lot of patience and stay true to our possession game,” senior center back Yasmeen Dmeiri said.

Dmeiri recently suffered an ACL tear and surgery and was forced to sit out the game. “At first it was hard to watch games because I wanted so bad to go in and play,” Dmeiri said.

The game commenced and both teams scrambled across the field in the freezing cold temperatures. The Blue Devils were able to maintain the ball on Granite Bay’s side of the field. The first half remained scoreless.

Aggressive tackles by senior center back Annie Mitchell prevented the Grizzlies from reaching the goal and allowed Davis to push the ball up field.

Senior midfielder Skye Shaffer had many quick interceptions, finding her forwards up front and was a headache for Granite Bay attempting to move the ball around looking for openings.

Sophomore left forward Summer Baron was able to create many stops and dribble herself out of traffic to find open teammates in the middle for a quick push on the goal.

Senior midfielder Maya Doms carried the load on the offensive side, leading almost every attack with her flashy dribbles and uncatchable speed.

At the end of the first half, Davis led Granite Bay with shots at goal 14-0, but did not convert a single one.

Heading into the second half the game remained the same, with more attacks by the Blue Devils and turnovers by the Grizzlies, but the score remained 0-0 with 15 minutes remaining.

At the 28 minute mark, Doms gave a quick touch pass to senior midfielder Paige Rubinstein who dribbled up the right side of the field with two defenders on her back. She then attempted a sliding shot and was able to cross the ball into the bottom left corner of the net. The slide led to a nasty turf burn on her right thigh.

The Blue Devils were then up 1-0 with 12 minutes remaining in the match.

Not even a minute later, Rubinstein found herself with an opening on the left side of the field and attempted to hit her second goal of the game, but the ball just missed.

Four minutes later, sophomore forward Megan Looney received the perfect lead pass from Doms and was able to give a quick tip-in goal right underneath the keeper to build a solid lead of 2-0 with eight minutes left.

With less than two minutes left, Granite Bay found a way to sneak in a late goal, their first attempt at the net that match.

The whistle blew and the Blue Devils were crowned Section Champions for the fourth year in a row.

The win was followed by celebratory cheers and photos, as well as tears of joy from the girls.

The Blue Devils were each given patches and a hat, as well as a banner to hang in the rafters for their success.

Shaffer is more than proud to be named a member of the DHS women’s soccer team. “Just having the title of winning sections four years in a row is amazing, almost unbelievable,” Shaffer said. “It’s something unheard of for Division 1 sports and I’ve had the best time of my life being apart of this team.”