Off and running — Grizzlies begin season with draws

The game may have started on the wrong foot for the Grizzlies girls soccer team against the Lions last week, but the players quickly proved they have what it takes to be competitive this season.

The roster for the Grizzlies this year includes Isabelle Remington, Juno Pike, Lorynn Visscher, Katherine Rieg, Kelsea Coder, Whitney Marcis, Keira Osteen, Rosie Neogy, Juniper Helling, Alicia Garcia, Zoe Johnson, Marley Gediman, Nailea Gonzalez, Mia Winsor, Tamzen McCollom, Phoebe Davis, Bailee Wenger, Aurora Martella, Milly Steed, Cora Grasso, Kaia Ramirez and Rio Pelote.

Coaching the team are Katie Pike, Jamie Casner and Adam Finney.

Big Valley Christian was the visiting team at Mariposa County High School last week for the Grizzlies season opener, which ended in a tie of 2-2.

“Just watching them play so far has been great,” said Pike.

“They’re connecting passes; they’re thinking and not just trying to bulldoze through.”

During the first few seconds of the game, BVC’s Karlie Powell broke away and scored almost immediately.

The Grizzlies showed resilience and dominated the rest of the first half but they couldn’t seem to capitalize with a goal.

The score was 1-0 for the Lions at halftime.

A few minutes into the second half, Powell scored again for BVC.

The Grizzlies continued to fight and Garcia put the ball in the net, bringing MCHS within one.

Just before the final whistle, Marcis tied the game for the Grizzlies.

“They’re doing everything that they’re supposed to be doing,” Pike said.

“We may have tied but they dominated on the field.”

Before this game, the team had only been practicing for about two weeks.

“We’re seeing things we’ve worked on in practice and I’m so proud of that,” continued Pike.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get as many goals as we had hoped.”

The team has several young players this season as about half of the roster are freshmen and sophomores.

“We have a bunch of young ones this year,” Pike said.

“Both girls who scored tonight are freshmen.”

They may be freshmen but they’re already ahead of the game with their skills.

“Alicia (Garcia) and Whitney (Marcis) are in the middle this year and they just control the game,” Pike said.

“We’re playing a diamond shape this year and it’s working pretty well.”

Remington is the Grizzlies goalkeeper this season and had 17 saves against BVC.

“We had someone tear their ACL and Izzy (Remington) stepped up last minute,” continued Pike.

“She wanted to try it and she’s got great instinct.”

The Grizzlies are off to a great start but know what they need to work on.

“We need to work on defense and finishing,” explained Pike.

“We can play awesome in the center but we have to score goals.”

The Grizzlies traveled to Chowchilla on Dec. 5 to compete against the Tribe.

Like the first game, this game concluded in a tie with a Grizzly goal courtesy of Garcia.

MCHS hosted Vanguard College Prep on Dec. 9 on Grizzly Field.

Results were not available at press time.

Next up, MCHS will face the Bulldogs in Le Grand on Dec. 11 for their first league game of the season.

Game time is 3:30 p.m.