Freshman striker leads Sanger High girls’ comeback in 4-2 league victory against Memorial

Just when it looked like Sanger High failed to bring its A game in a CMAC/NYL match against San Joaquín Memorial on Friday night, freshman striker Ava Martínez converted a first-half penalty kick and added a second-half goal when it mattered.

Head coach Joe Flores admitted after the 4-2 win that he was worried about seeing his team fall behind 1-0 and 2-1.

Martínez and better play from her teammates took those worries away as the Apaches improved to 5-0-1 in league play and 11-2-1 overall. Memorial dropped to 3-3 in league and 11-9-1 overall.

“I think that we know we had to pick it up and not get in their heads like they could win,” said Martínez, who leads Sanger with 11 goals. “We just had to come back and do what we do best.”

Sanger is the defending Central Section Division II champion, whose only losses are to Clovis powers Clovis and Clovis East.

Martínez missed out on last year’s championship season, but is looking forward to duplicating that experience this year.

“I know last year’s team had a good fighting spirit. So we just want to maintain that this year,” said Martínez.

Flores called Martínez one of the many playmakers the team has.

“I consider every single player out there a playmaker because without the system and other players (Martínez) can’t do her job,” he said. “Kudos to her. She finishes when she needs to finish and puts it in the net and that’s what we need.”

Martínez was quick to praise the work of sophomore teammate Corynn Bravo on her long throw-ins, one which helped set up her second-half goal..

Flores likes having Bravo’s talent.

“Since we have that special kid and we’re going to use her to the best of our ability,” he said. “Every time that we’re closer to that goal, we consider it like a corner kick.”

San Joaquín Memorial withstood some early offensive attacks and generated goals from Bella Hernández and Mía Valdez to grab a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute and a 2-1 advantage in the 27th minute.

Ariana Ávalos responded with a long goal in the 20th minute, and sophomore teammate Sierra Molinet scored on a penalty kick in the 34th minute.

Martínez got tackled inside the box, which resulted in the penalty kick she made.

Her final goal came in the 53rd minute, not long after the visitors were left a player short due to a red card.

Flores admitted he was worried about how the match at Tom Flores Stadium started.

“Absolutely. It bothered me. But you know what? I can’t play for them. They have to play on their own,” said the second-year head coach.

“So all we can do is just mentor them through the process and hopefully they can recover and get those goals back. But, you know, good teams always come back, always know how to finish.”

Flores has four seniors back from last year’s championship team. That means he has managed to incorporate a number of underclassmen to make the team click.

“We had to regroup from last season and we’re doing really well. I mean, I’m fully confident that these girls can play at any level,” said Flores. “I mean, we’ve been tested with high caliber teams and, you know, we’ve been successful.”

He hopes Sanger learns not to take any game for granted as it finishes out its league season and prepares for the playoffs.

“We have to play our game every single time,” he said.