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Cecilia Sifuentes drives the ball down the field past a Salesian defender.

Encinal High women's soccer team came away victorious in a hard-fought defensive struggle against Salesian High 1-0 last Friday at Stargell Field.

"The game was intense," said Encinal women's soccer coach Jean DeCru. "It was physical and it felt like a playoff game."

Emily Rentschler scored the only goal of the match in the 13th minute when her kick from 15 yards out was out of the reach of Salesian Pride's diving goalie, inside the post and into the goal.

Two minutes later, Encinal goalie Melissa Ma raced toward an unattended goal and corralled the ball before a hard-charging Salesian player could get to it. There were several similar plays in the match where Ma had to leave her position to grab the ball.

"She's a maestro," said DeCru of Ma. "She's the only one who could see the whole field and she did a great job of moving around and communicating with her teammates."

Though the Jets scored just one goal, they did have plenty of chances in the first half.

In the 27th minute, Cecilia Sifuentes kicked a well-placed lobpass to her sister Alex Sifuentes who attempted a header, but the ball hit the top of the post and out. Minutes later, Lorin Andenberg kicked a lead pass into Salesian territory to Carrie Simmons who made a great cross to Julia Roriz, whose attempt from 10 yards out went just wide of the net. In the 36th minute, Andenberg passed to Alex Sifuentes who maneuvered around a Salesian defender and attempted a goal from 10 yards out, but the ball traveled a foot over the top of the post.

The Jets controlled the tempo and the ball for most of the second half until the waning minutes when Salesian put pressure on the Jets and continuously attacked Encinal's goal. In the 78th minute, Salesian attempted a corner kick that dropped in the middle of a pile of players, but Ma came to the rescue again and grabbed it before Salesian could attempt a goal. Encinal kept kicking the ball away from their territory in stoppage time until the referees blew the whistle to signify the end of the match.

"When we're up by one, I tell the team to keep attacking, play like it's still 0-0," said DeCru. "I am proud of the way our team played. We played together. It was a great win."

The win means the Jets are now in second place in the Bay Shore Athletic League (BSAL) standings as of last Friday with a 7-2-2 record, (9- 3-3 overall) just behind undefeated Albany. The Jets faced St. Mary's of Albany on Tuesday in a battle for second place and will finish up their regular season this Saturday against rival Alameda High School at 3 p.m. on Stargell Field.