El Capitan girls soccer marches on to the semifinals after defeating Sierra
El Capitan High soccer star Anaya Shelton isn’t ready to end her high school career just yet.
Shelton will lace up her spikes at least one more time after the senior scored a pair of goals to help lead the No. 4 seeded Gauchos to a 3-0 win over No. 5 Sierra in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs on Wednesday afternoon at El Capitan High School.
“It’s my senior year and I don’t want my high school season to be over,” said Shelton, who has scored 29 goals in 13 matches this season. “It’s a great feeling to still be playing. Everyone on the team is committed and we’re ready to go to the next round.”
The next round will be a semifinal match on Friday against No. 1 seed Vista Del Lago, which defeated No. 9 Beyer 6-1 on Wednesday night.
Shelton gave the Gauchos (12-3-2) an early lead against the Timberwolves (16-5-2) when she scored on a breakaway goal just over 10 minutes into their quarterfinal match.
The early cushion helped El Capitan ease into a very tense playoff matchup.
“I don’t want to say it helped us relax, but it gave us an edge on them,” Shelton said. “That’s super important in a playoff game. Especially sometimes when you don’t know who all their weapons are. That early goal helped us dictate the match.”
The Gauchos defense focused on limiting the opportunities of Jocelin Roa, who led Sierra with 37 goals in 22 matches this season.
“Our main objective was to shut her down,” said El Capitan assistant Jazmin Chavez.
Shelton applauded the performance of the Gauchos defenders.
“We knew we had to stop (Roa),” Shelton said. “Jalissa (Cortez), Amy (Li), Kassidy (Spiva) and our goalie Cassidy (Fischer) were huge today and we needed it.”
The Gauchos were able to tack on a couple second-half goals to pull away.
Freshman Isabela Pangelina deflected a ball near the 18-yard line, gathered it, cut across and fired a shot that found the back of the net to extend the Gauchos’ lead to 2-0 in the 65th minute.
Shelton made it 3-0 when she deposited a header off a pass from Spiva late in the match.
The victory means the Gauchos’ postseason run continues and they’re one win away from playing for a section championship.
“It’s been an amazing run,” Chavez said. “I’ve been fortunate to coach Anaya since she was a freshman. These girls are awesome on and off the field. It’s been an honor to coach them.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 6:02 PM.
