SOCCER: MOORPARK'S GROWING PAINS.Byline: Heather Gripp Daily News Staff Writer Back in February, when last season ended, coach Kellee Roesel looked forward to the next high school girls' soccer season with high hopes. Her Moorpark freshmen team had just completed a solid season beating all but one team from the Marmonte League The Marmonte League is a high school sports league primarily made up of schools from Ventura County. The Marmonte Leauge is part of the CIF Southern Section. Click here to view the league schedule. , which the Musketeers join this season. Roesel envisioned similar results when she took over as the Musketeers varsity coach. Goalkeeper For the close-in weapon system, see . In many team sports, a goalkeeper (termed goaltender, netminder, goalie, or keeper in some sports) is a designated player that is charged with directly preventing the opposite team from scoring by defending the Kristen Lilly, forwards Jordana Bartlett and Kristie Bentley and midfielders Megan Spain and Alison Yanden all moved up to varsity with Roesel. ``With six returning starters and a strong influx of underclassmen (Moorpark), should fair well in the Marmonte League this year,'' the coach predicted just before the start of the season. That outlook quickly changed, however. ``It's definitely a rebuilding year,'' she said. ``That's a really big jump for us coming into the Marmonte. We've got a lot of younger players in the program. It's gonna gon·na Informal Contraction of going to: We're gonna win today. be a really hard year for us.'' Moorpark's biggest problem is lack of experience. At a time when club soccer has become almost a necessity for serious players, the Musketeers have just one varsity player competing at the club level. Junior midfielder
In association football, a midfielder is a player whose position of play is midway between the attacking strikers and the defenders (highlighted in blue on the diagram). Melissa Geis is the Musketeers' lone club player and is described by Roesel as ``a very strong player.'' A knee injury to sophomore sweeper Deana Scott also hurt ateam in need of defense and forwards. ``She's super-aggressive, just really dominant,'' Roesel said. ``That's really difficult for us to lose her.'' Senior Lindsey Pitta pitta (pĭt`ə), name used to refer to a genus (Pitta) of small, plump, brightly colored birds. The genus, including some twenty-three species, constitutes the whole of the family Pittidae. took over for Scott, even though she is usually a forward. ``She steps up when you need her too,'' Roesel said. ``If you need something done, she'll do it. It's not her natural position, but she's the team-leader type. The girls look up to her.'' Senior Kelly Weaver
The Weavers are small passerine birds related to the finches. These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which breed in sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical and Geis are responsible for providing the offense until Scott returns and allows Pitta to go back up front. ``She's a really composed player,'' Roesel said of Pitta. ``If she has the ball a few feet in front of the goal, it won't end up five feet over the crossbar. I can't tell you how many times I've seen that lately. If it's played to her, she'll put it away.'' Moorpark, which finished second in the Frontier League The Frontier League, based in Troy, Illinois, is a professional, independent baseball organization located in the Midwestern United States and Western Pennsylvania. It operates mostly in cities not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and is not affiliated with either. last season, faces one of the Marmonte's toughest teams when the Musketeers host Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. in today's league opener. Despite their struggles, the Musketeers remain upbeat. ``I couldn't ask for a better group of girls,'' Roesel said. ``It's hard for us to compete at a level we haven't played at before. Hopefully we'll win a few games here and there and continue to develop. It's gonna be tough, but there's no other group of girls I'd want to go through this with.'' |
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