TKA girls soccer wraps up league crown, downs Pinewood 2-0

By Greg Lydon

Hub Correspondent

Senior day festivities at The King’s Academy School-Sunnyvale were a little more intimate than normal before the scheduled girls soccer match between TKA and Pinewood School-Los Altos Hills.

With only one senior on the roster, senior day turned into Rachel Giese day as the Knights honored their lone senior before their WBAL-Skyline division finale.

Teammates showered the Knights speedy forward with flowers and a big hug, then Giese went to work.

Giese set-up the first score and nearly another as TKA shutdown and shutout Pinewood 2-0 to cap off a perfect regular season in league play.

The Knights finished the year with a 13-5-2 record overall and a dominant 9-0-1 record in league play.

With the top two teams in the WBAL upper division getting the first two Central Coast Section playoff nods, TKA will have to play their way into the playoffs with a win today against either Menlo School or Woodside Priory.

The play-in game will be held at Skyline College and is set to start at 3:30.

First year girls soccer coach Stephen Ting has been down this road before.

 Last year as the head coach of the TKA boys team, Ting’s Knights squad entered the WBAL tourney as the No. 5 seed and won back-to-back games over higher seeds to punch their ticket to the playoffs.

The final game was a rain drenched thriller against Menlo School that ended in pk’s.

“I was treating today’s game as a prep for tomorrow,” Ting said. “We haven’t played Menlo or Priory this year. Whoever we play, we know it will be a quality opponent.”  

TKA’s offense wasted little time getting things going early. The Knights peppered the Panthers net with four shots in the first six minutes of play, but a stout showing from Pinewood senior keeper Jessica Lacy kept the home team off the board.

Lacy was one of seven Pinewood seniors that played in their final game of their careers Thursday.

Lacy, Katherine Mellis, Maia Nofal, Madisen Hirsch, Madisen Swisher, Kelsey Dean and Shayma Hesari round out the Panthers senior class.

Giese opened the scoring in the 12:00 minute off a great run in the mid-field. Giese broke away from the pack in the middle, then placed a perfect touch pass to a streaking Alex Alugas.

Alugas, a TKA sophomore, kicked in a slow roller to put the Knights ahead 1-0.

“They haven’t lost a league game yet for a reason,” Pinewood head coach Michael Tetzlaff said. “We weren’t decisive enough with the ball today.”

The second TKA score came in the 23:00 minute, again off the foot of Alugas.

Freshman Jordan Tuttle crossed the ball into the box, but the Alugas shot rung off the cross bar.

The alert TKA forward followed up the post shot and tipped in the rebound to put TKA ahead for good 2-0.

Both teams navigated the bumpy, muddy field admirably, but the conditions left the Panthers offense stuck in the mud for the majority of the 70-minute affair.

“Their used to playing on this field and it showed,” Tetzlaff said. “They were the quicker, more decisive team today.”

Pinewood finished league play 3-5-2 overall.