TOMALES — Upper Lake’s 9-1 win over Tomales in the North Central League II opener for both of these girls soccer teams Wednesday afternoon in Tomales left Cougars head coach Daniella Santana seeing red, literally.
Santana said she was assessed a red card by officials after the game had ended, and not for anything she did or said.
“They gave me a red card because of our crowd,” Santana said of Upper Lake fans in attendance, including members of the boys soccer team, who did not play Wednesday.
“My team wanted to get a picture in front of the scoreboard (after the game was over),” said Santana, who claimed the officials were not pleased with the conduct of Upper Lake’s fan base and confronted her as the Cougars were taking the photo. “They said it’s the most unsportsmanlike conduct they had ever seen.”
Santana said that wasn’t the case at all.
“The refs were horrible the entire game,” she said. “If they’re going to tell me to get my crowd under control, you better tell them (Tomales fans) to do the same. They said some horrible things to my players.”
The ejection could keep Santana from coaching the Cougars on Friday when they visit Rohnert Park to play defending NCL II champion Credo. If Santana can’t coach Upper Lake because of the red card, she’ll be replaced on the sidelines by brother Thomas Santana, head coach of the Upper Lake boys, and perhaps Mark Zimmerschied, who has a daughter on the team as well as a soccer background.
Santana said the officials called Tomales for only two fouls during the game while the Cougars were called “for just about everything,” Santana said.
Two Upper Lake players, Nya Marcks and Kat Lopez-Geary, also were assessed yellow cards during the game. Santana said there were no cards of any color issued to Tomales.
“My fans were just hyping it up for my girls,” Santana said. “Their fans were going after our players.”
Even with what Santana said was biased officiating during the game, the Cougars improved to 9-0 on the season with an onslaught of offense led by Ashlyn Rhodes, who had four goals and an assist, including three straight goals at one point. Five other players also scored goals — Marcks, Lopez-Geary, Maddy Young, Vanessa Lopez-Becerra and Trinity Blancas. Tristin Rhodes and Lopez-Becerra each had two assists.
