
DHS freshman Brooke Rubinstein sends a ball toward the goal in the Blue Devils' 6-0 victory over Sheldon on Wednesday at Yudin Field. Megan Ewens/Enterprise photo
While it will go down in the record books as an official game, for all intents and purposes, Davis High’s 6-0 win over the Sheldon girls soccer team on Wednesday at Yudin Field was nothing but a warm-up for the biggest match of the season.
Because the Blue Devils have beaten the other three of their four remaining opponents by a combined score of 29-1 already this spring, Monday’s home contest against Franklin essentially will decide the Delta League title.
“I think we’ve been preparing all year, as far as the fitness aspect of it. Our goal is to be more fit. It looks like the weather is going to be warm so hopefully it pays off,” said DHS head coach Sara Stone. “And just mentally preparing for that game and what it’s going to look like, these girls have done this for their whole life, playing soccer.”
Currently sitting in second place with an 8-1-1 conference record (the Devils are 11-1-1 overall), a win over the 9-1 Wildcats — who handed Davis its only loss of the season nearly a month ago — would give the locals sole possession of first place in the new Delta League.
“I don’t want to over-think it. I think we’re successful when we’re first to every ball. The St. Francis game (Monday), if anybody saw that, it’s super-clear that if you’re first to every ball, you win every ball, you kind of dictate the play,” Stone said. “So that’s kind of the mind-set that I’m going to go with and hopefully we’ll get an opportunity, a half chance and we’ll make it work. (Thursday’s) training will be hard and intense, as well as Friday’s. We’ll be ready to go, hopefully, Monday.”
As for Wednesday, four first-half Blue Devil goals assured that the contest was over before Sheldon got a chance to take advantage of the heavy winds that were at its back coming out of the break.
It took just 13 minutes for DHS to break through, on sophomore Julia Curtis’ team-leading 16th goal of the season.
The speedy forward broke open the floodgates after receiving a pass from junior Gaby Herrera, turning past her defender, cutting by another one, and drilling the ball into the back of the net from 8 yards out.
Fellow sophomore Sidra Bugsch doubled the Devil lead just two minutes later when she picked the ball off of the foot of a Husky defender at the top of the box, and slotted it under the onrushing goalkeeper.
Davis then scored its third goal in five minutes when Brooke Rubinstein won a ball at midfield, raced all the way into the goalbox and fired a shot to the lower left corner.
Though Rubinstein’s shot was cleared off the line, Suleikha Sutter’s late run allowed the senior to tap the rebound into the back of the net.
A 25-yard free kick goal from Herrera rounded out the Blue Devils’ first-half scoring.
Senior defender Renee Schumann and junior forward Hannah Deknikker both tallied goals early in the second half to complete the scoring for the hosts.
Notes: DHS senior Olivia Haass entered the game early in the second half for her first varsity appearance of the season after missing the better part of a year with a torn ACL.
— Reach Evan Ream at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @EvanReam