Own your own piece of Amador history! The AVHS Booster club is currently taking orders for AVHS Commemorative Bricks. With your name and text of your choice, the purchased bricks will be placed around our future Amador Hall of Fame in the Amador Stadium (rendering shown) where past alumni will be honored for their great achievements. Beautifully placed around the Hall of Fame area, your brick or bricks will literally make your mark on the Amador campus for years to come. Buy yours today! http://www.amadorsports.com/organizations/2708/pages/137461

Attention Girls Soccer,

The Pigskin committee is working hard on organizing this years “All Sports 2017-2018 Season Kick Off”. New this year, along with merchandise booths, game booths, hosted by the parents and athletes, will be presented. We currently have all teams represented except for girls soccer. If anyone from your team is interested in stepping up to organize a booth, you can contact Laura Borges, the committee chair at jl_borges@comcast.net or myself, Dixie 925-963-7791 or respond to this message.

We hope to see you out there! Its going to be a great year for Amador Athletics!

Dixie

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday of this week lots of fingers and toes were being crossed hoping that the weather and field would hold up so that the Lady Don Seniors could be honored at their final home game against cross town rival Foothill. And, that’s just what happened. The skies cleared (for most of the game) and a wonderful celebration was conducted and a great soccer game was played.

Prior to the start of the game, the 10 Amador seniors were accompanied onto the field by family and friends while a rousing tribute was read to each of them. This is a culmination of many years of play and devotion to their school and the event couldn’t have been more perfect. The 10 Amador Valley seniors (in order of procession) are: Juliet Allen, Shanece Hunsaker, Katie Judson, Lorna Roberts, Alyssa Bardakos, Samantha Frost, Emily Mickelson, Sammy Lai, Jenyce Dutcher and Summer Langsam. Tracy Greenam and her helpers did such a wonderful job decorating the field with colorful balloons, cute messages to the girls and a jersey with the numbers! The fan support was awesome too with lots of cheers all around. Congratulations to each of these awesome girls and best of luck in the next phase of their lives.

With so much emotion from the senior night festivities it’s no wonder that when the game started, the Lady Dons were pumped. Amador played as if they were possessed and dominated control of the game from the opening whistle. Amador got on the board first off of a corner kick from Sam Frost as the ball was headed over 4 times back and forth in the goal box before Julia Gonsman finally put it over the goalkeeper’s head and into the net. Amador was on top 1 – 0. But, as often happens, the opposing team was inspired too and were able to equalize only 5 minutes later as a Foothill forward sneakily got through the Amador back line and went one-on-one with keeper Allen. Allen was able to deflect the initial shot with a hand save but it was promptly kicked into the goal off the deflection. Most thought it would go into half tied 1 -1 but to the Amador fans delight, Amador was able to snag a second goal before half on probably one of the most impressive goals of the season. Sammy Lai redirected a Sam Frost cross into the top side of the goal to put Amador back in front – wish we had replay – that was one sensational combination. At half, Amador led by a score of 2 – 1.

The wind started to pick up in the second half as did the rain and those in the stands could sense a bit of a change of momentum as Foothill started organizing runs one after another. The defense of Gonsman, Mickelson, Hunter, Landal, Dutcher, Hunsaker and Greenam were able to keep them from scoring for a bit with some great team coverage and solid play by Allen but the pressure just became too intense. Foothill equalized the score midway through the second half with a blistering shot from the top of the 18 that Allen got a glove on but was unable to keep out. Amador had multiple chances following the tied score but couldn’t get one past the Foothill defense. Then, as the rain picked up intensity, Foothill drew a foul outside the 18 yard box (and in this writer’s opinion on a questionable foul) and was able to thread a low, hot kick through the defense and into the side net. Amador valiantly attempted to come back but to no avail. The game ended with the rain coming down hard with a final score of Foothill 3 – Amador Valley 2.

That brings the Amador Valley final record to 9 wins, 8 losses and 2 ties for the season – remarkable!!!! We hope to get an NCS bid as we played all teams tough and we are incredibly proud of all of our girls!

Thanks for the great season thus far and back with you for NCS (again, fingers crossed.)

If you were lucky enough to attend the game against Carondelet last night you were treated to arguably the best game that the 2016-2017 Lady Dons played all season. Every girl gave 110% to the effort and should hold their heads high! I was so impressed with the team’s hustle and composure. Amador was on the losing side by a score of 1 – 0 but played a great game!

On the defensive side, the Amador defense and midfield had to content with a trio of Carondelet attackers who have been scoring at an alarming pace against other competition. The back line of Keara Greenan, Julia Gonsman, Allie Hunter, Hannah Landel, Hanna Fleshman, Sydney DeVor and keeper Juliet Allen managed to keep the Cougars from scoring through most of the game with one excellent play after another. The collection of players covered for each other and made some great stops to prevent one on one challenges to Allen. When they did get through, Allen was able to come out and stop the attacks. In testament to the entire defensive effort, Carondelet only had 6 shots with Allen stopping 5 of them.

On the offensive end, the Lady Dons did have their chances against a fairly veteran Cougar squad. Forwards Sam Frost, Abbie Fried, Shanece Hunsaker, Sammy Lai, Alyssa Bardakos and Summer Langsam were very aggressive. While all played extremely well, Hunsaker and Langsam seemed to be everywhere on the field mixing it up.

The midfield team of Molly Murphy, Katie Judson, Kylie Racer and Lorna Roberts had to contribute both offensively and defensively and this quartet were marvelous – and I am sure exhausted after the effort. These 4 girls were instrumental in either stopping or stalling the Cougar attack and deserve recognition.

In the end, the Cougars attack was able to poke one goal in late in the game to earn their win BUT it was fantastic to hear the pleas of frustration and urgency from the Carondelet parents as the game went on. Thank you girls for giving us a great game to watch. We are so proud of you.

The Lady Dons have their final two games of the regular season as they face Dublin and Foothill on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

The Amador Valley Girls Varsity soccer team brought their season win total to 8 with a big win over Granada by a final score of 1 – 0 on Tuesday night at Amador. In the first meeting earlier this year, Granada took it to the Lady Dons by a score of 2 – 0 so there was lots of motivation to win the final game in the series. The Dons defense was their typical stingy selves keeping Granada out of the goal and the offense were inventive and scrappy to get the Dons on the board.

While there was lots of back and forth in the first half of play, neither team was unable to score and halftime came with a 0 – 0 score. After switching sides, the Lady Dons picked up their already strong effort to even greater heights. In the 52 minute, Amador earned a free kick from 35 yards out of goal. Allie Hunter put a brilliant ball over AND THROUGH the defense where it landed untouched at the top of the 6 yard box directly in front of the goal. Abbie Fried trapped the ball and kicked it into the side net to score the Amador goal.

Over the next 28 minutes, Amador tried to increase their lead and Granada also did their best to get an equalizer. Granada nearly had their tying score in the 70th minute as two Granada forwards collected a ball kicked over the Amador defensive back line. Bracketed by two Amador defenders, the two Granada players went straight at the Amador keeper Allen who came out bravely to capture the ball. Allen went up, caught the ball and then was unceremoniously clocked by a Granada player attempting to head the ball in. Disaster averted, the Lady Dons maintained their control and finished the game ahead – final score – Amador Valley 1 – Granada 0.

Great effort by the entire team and good to get that 8th victory as the team chases an NCS bid.

The Lady Dons travel to Carondelet for an away game on Thursday, February 2.