After winning four Moore League title in five years from 2012-2016, it’s been three seasons since the Long Beach Poly girls’ soccer team has brought home the league trophy, a fact that sits heavily on the mind of the Jackrabbits.
“We definitely have the goal to win league this year after missing it by one point last year,” said Poly coach Anthony Perez.
Perez has the athletes to do it this year, with a lineup packed full of future NCAA talent, including returning Moore League Offensive Player of the Year Aniah Cutler, who just signed with Washington State in the week she had between volleyball and soccer seasons.
“I got a weekend off, that was a nice break,” said Cutler. “We’re all really excited for the season. It’s a good team, we want to win league so bad. We’re determined. We all talk about it way too much.”
Perez has high hopes for his senior.
“She’s one of the biggest threats out there, and I don’t even mean just in a scoring fashion, I mean in a presence fashion,” he said. “Everyone’s going to be worried about covering her, and her being that dangers is going to free up our other dangerous players as well.”
Cutler isn’t the only collegiately committed Jackrabbit. Perez’s lineup is virtually the same from last year, with the exception of the two center backs. San Jose State commit Sarah Santos and Colorado commit Morgan King are both back in the midfield, and University of San Francisco commit Kira Ybarra will still anchor the defense in goal.
Kelsey Adams will be another key offensive piece for Poly, and Isabella Yakel will be the third midfield, giving the Jackrabbits a ton of talent facilitating.
Perez is excited for his second year at the helm for Poly, as his team has gelled together nicely.
“Last year we did heads and tails better than the year before with the deep runs in CIF and State,” said Perez. “This year we were moved up to Division 1 so the playoffs are a lot tougher. I don’t want the girls to worry about expectations for league, for playoffs. I just want them to go game by game, just compete and we’ll go as far as we can go.”
Come back tomorrow for the Long Beach Poly boys’ soccer preview!
