Lady Giants soccer will look to its defense to lead the way

FREMONT – When Fremont Ross girls soccer coach Phil Collison looks at his roster, he doesn’t have to look hard to see its strong suit.

With a deep collection of returning experience, Ross’ defensive prowess is going to take center stage in whatever level of success the Lady Giants enjoy in 2018.

“Defensively is going to be our strength,” Collison said. “We’re returning all four to the back line. Sophie (Collison), Justine (Michael), Kelby (Bickley) and Jordan (Relford).

“That defense had played defense for all four years, this will be their fourth year together, and they’ve all, for four years, just played defense. That’s a nice thing.”

That defense, while deep and experienced, will be called upon to lend its knowledge of the game to its first-year goalkeeper, junior Sarah Watson. Watson replaces the graduated Hailey Taylor who will continue her goalkeeping career at Heidelburg University.

Watson, like Taylor three years ago, joins the squad to play goal without any prior experience at the position which can bring with it a steep learning curve.

“One of the bigger things Sarah is going to have to learn are the nuances of the position and positioning herself as well, as the game goes on and as the ball moves on, how she moves to put herself in position with the angles from the shooting.

“One thing we’ve noticed is how patient our defenders are with her and are working with her, so a lot of it will be learning that stuff and learning what each other are going to do.”

In the middle of the field, Ross returns a handful of veterans. Midfield Elizabeth Bloom returns as does Mia Ramirez and Mackenzie Kidwell on the outside. Collison said he expects freshman Paige Drusback to contribute in the midfield as well.

Up front, junior Ashtyn Schneider will be looked to lead the attack where she’ll be joined by Justine Michael, who Collison said he’ll move from defense back to her natural position of goal-scorer.

“They have the type of offense where they can produce,” Collison said. “They both have great shots. Justine was a great scorer as a freshman at times, then we had to drop her back to defense because we needed that stopper position filled. She’s got probably one of the better shots on the team and best understanding of the game.”

While Collison said he’s optimistic the Lady Giants will be able to put the ball in the net, he conceded no coach knows for sure how offensive a team will be until he sees it come to fruition.

“Any coach will always worry whether or not they can put the ball in the net,” he said. “There’s years where you get everything on the cage but right at the keeper. There’s going be years where you push everything just wide. Is this a year where the can put it in the side netting? You always worry about that. I think we can do it. I think we can put the ball in the net. We play some teams we match up well with.”

The Lady Giants narrowly missed out on a winning season last year, 7-8-2, despite three or four games where they led or were tied in the final minutes only to see it slip away.

While competing in the TRAC will once again be a steep task, Collison believes Ross will once again be in the hunt for a winning season.

“Last year, I think we were really competitive in our non-league matches, I think we only struggled and played poorly in one and I see us once again playing well in our non-league matches. It’s just how the chips fall and how the season goes and how people get nicked up or don’t get nicked up.

“The kids work hard and it’s nice that this group of seniors, collectively, as a whole, they’re a good group of leaders, it’s not about them. And I’m not saying last year’s weren’t, but they’re doing a good job of stepping into that leadership role.”