Team meeting pays immediate dividends for ACHS girls' soccer squad
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers PHYSICAL- Pacifica's Paige Clark slide tackles Camarillo's Amber Pimley during Tuesday's match.

Last week the girls' soccer team at Camarillo High held a team meeting to discuss what it would take to win the Pacific View League title. So far, the meeting has paid off.

On Tuesday, the Scorpions had no problem beating Pacifica at home, scoring three goals in the first half en route to a 4-0 win.

The victory put Camarillo's record in league at 4-0-1- tops in the Pacific View. The Scorpions' overall record is 6-6-1.

Sophomore Amber Pimley got things going for ACHS in the opening minutes when she scored to put Camarillo up 1-0.

Minutes later, sophomore halfback Taylor Benton got a breakaway and put the ball into the net to give the Scorpions a 2-0 lead.

Senior forward Jessica Fogeltanz put the game out of reach minutes later when she nailed a penalty shot.

In the first half, Camarillo was facing many traps by Pacifica and had to adjust.

"In order to beat the traps, we had to have more through balls and we had to beat them on the dribble more," Fogeltanz said. "I think we did a good job of that during the game."

Senior forward Ashley Gnagy knocked in a goal in the second half to put ACHS ahead 4-0.

With both goalkeepers for Camarillo- sophomore Brook Nixon in the first half and senior Tami Bocash in the second half- combining for a shutout, the four goals Camarillo scored would be more than enough on this day.

"We take this game as a statement game," Camarillo head coach Chris Lawler said. "We needed to prove to other teams that we plan on continuing our reign in the Pacific View League."

The Scorpions' season didn't start off too hot, as ACHS saw their record slip to 1-6 after a 6-0 loss at Buena on Jan. 2.

At that point in the season, Camarillo had been outscored 7-19. It was obvious that something needed to change.

Fortunately, ACHS reeled off two straight wins before earning a tie with Rio Mesa. After the tie, Camarillo beat Hueneme before the squad decided to have the team meeting.

"At the beginning of the season it seemed that the team could not come together," Fogeltanz said. "We had a meeting and it was decided that we had to come together if we wanted to win league.

"This team has more talent and more potential than last year's team. I still think we need to work on our work ethic and our consistency. We need to come into every game knowing that the outcome will be important in the standings."

Lawler likes how the team has responded over the last week.

"Today I thought our defense played very well," Lawler said. "I thought our fullbacks seemed to have more saves than our goalies. I liked our composure out there today and how we seemed to trust each other on the field."

Camarillo played yesterday at Oxnard but as of press time the score wasn't available. The Scorpions play next at Channel Islands on Tuesday with game time set for 3:15 p.m.