With 11 freshmen on the Heritage High JV girls soccer team, seven of whom are starters, head coach Denise Corrado said the team's greatest weakness is its lack of focus. But last Tuesday night the Lady Patriots concentrated all of their efforts on containing the first-place Carondelet Cougars and the result was a 1-1 tie.

The Cougars got onto the scoreboard 10 minutes into the game, blasting a shot past Heritage goalie Kendra Wren. The Patriots answered back 20 minutes later when Amanda Macahilig passed to Lauren Howard, whose low shot bounced off the opposite post and into the goal.

The second half was a defensive battle for both teams, neither of which were able to reach the back of the net before the final buzzer.

"We were so psyched to get the tie," Corrado said. "This gives us a lot of confidence as we start thinking about playing varsity next year."

Two days later, Heritage earned the 4-0 victory over Pittsburg. Macahilig, Taffy Diokno, Kali Chirayunon and Samantha Arvizu each scored for the Lady Patriots, improving the team's league record to 7-4-4.

After testing the Bay Valley Athletic League waters at the JV level, Corrado's main goal next season will be to earn respect as a varsity contender.

"It looks like our main competition will be Liberty, Carondelet and Clayton Valley," she said. "I think we should be pretty equal."

Despite being young, Corrado believes the level of talent on her squad far outweighs its youth and inexperience.

"There's positive and negatives about being so young," she said. "We lack focus and we're not that experienced at the high school level. But our energy level is amazing and these kids have great ball skills. They really are a talented group."

Heritage ended its season on Thursday against Antioch after the Brentwood Press went to print.