SPHSL Varsity Girls Football Update

By I. Kotler

The SPHSL (The São Paulo’s High School League) is a very competitive and challenging tournament which the St Paul’s Lions participate in every year. The Varsity Football Girls season began on the 15th of August in a match against the Chapel Trojans, the reigning champions. The girls showed dedication and perseverance throughout the match as they faced this challenging team and after a goal in the second half by Manoela Arantes, the match finished 1-1. The game went to penalties, and our team managed to pull through after the Trojans missed one of their goals.


On Tuesday the 22nd of August, the team played their second game against the Paca Warriors. Both teams played superbly, but the Lions were able to create some great opportunities to score and, fortunately, we won the game 1-0.


The third game took place at home against the Graded Eagles. In the first half, our team was unfocused and made many mistakes that resulted in a three point advantage for the opposing team. However, our mighty Lions didn’t give up and managed to score 3 consecutive goals on the second half. They showed a lot of perseverance and dedication but, unfortunately, this was not enough. In the last 5 mins of game, the eagles managed to score their fourth, and final, goal, resulting in a final score of 4-3. Despite the loss, it was really inspiring to see how the team managed to turn the game around in the second quarter.


The last game was away at EAC. After a long journey to Campinas, the St Paul’s Lions played an intense match against the EAC Giants. Despite a brilliant goal by Estela Westphalen in the beginning of the second quarter, our team lost 4-1. The Giants were a great adversary and truly deserved the victory, but we have hopes to beat them later on in the tournament.



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