SAN JOSE - Two more wins and all the hard work will have paid off.Gilroy High field hockey beat Presentation 2-0 Saturday in San Jose to advance to the semifinals of the Central Coast Section playoffs.
The Mustangs will now face Los Gatos tonight at 7:15 p.m. at Saratoga High School.
"It's pretty exciting," Gilroy coach Erin Gemar said. "It's clear to us this is the best team Gilroy High has ever had since we've been coaching."
An offseason dedicated to improving each player's skills, as well as overall athletic ability, seems to have worked wonders. During the summer, Gilroy's players had double-day practices three times a week, and triple-day practices twice a week.
No Mustang squad has ever advanced beyond the semifinals. This is just the second time in school history that a GHS field hockey team has advanced this far. The other occasion was in 2005, which was made possible by a triple-overtime victory over Los Gatos won on penalty strokes.
Penalty strokes weren't needed Saturday, though.
Dani Hemeon scored late in the first half to give Gilroy a 1-0 lead at the intermission, and Laura Spellman capitalized on a shot in the second half to give Gilroy a cushion.
"Dani's play was sweet," Gemar said.
Maneuvering past several Presentation players with quick touches, Hemeon advanced the rest of the way with a defender on her hip before striking the shot true. Jennifer Rose assisted on the play.
The second score came halfway through the second half. Spellman was assisted on the play by Alex Rose.
"We didn't actually play as well as we played Thursday," Gemar said in reference to a 10-0 first-round victory over Homestead. "There were a lot of scary balls in the first half."
Despite allowing Presentation to play on Gilroy's half of the field for part of the first 30 minutes, the Mustangs once again held on for a shutout.
Lexi MacPhail was awarded Player of the Game honors by her teammates, while Jennifer Rose had her second straight outstanding game in CCS, according to Gemar.
The Mustangs will now try to take down the No. 1 seed in Los Gatos, a team Gilroy beat 3-2 earlier in the season.
Josh Koehn
Josh Koehn is the sports editor for the Gilroy Dispatch. He can be reached at (408) 842-1694 or at jkoehn@svnewspapers.com.
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