Leland traveled to Cupertino on Oct. 20 to face the Pioneers and walked away with another victory. "It wasn't our best game," said head coach Sharan Kalla, "but at least we brought our passing game with us."

The Chargers began the game well, playing strong defense and keeping the ball out of their own territory before Sarah Powell passed to Christina Vierra, who knocked it in for the first goal of the day with 26:54 left on the clock in the first 30-minute half of play.

The ball bounced back and forth for a while with both teams having strong attempts, but falling short. More than one time did Megan Stiller come up with a kick save to protect the lead for the Chargers, along with some quality defense by Sara Adams and A.J. Huffman. "Stiller has allowed only two goals all season," said Kalla.

The Chargers drove the field again with less than five minutes to go in the first half. Vierra hit Huffman with a nice pass that Huffman knocked in, but the referees called it back due to a penalty. So with 2:57 remaining in the half, the score remained 1-0.

After the half, 'Tino came out on the offensive and overwhelmed the Charger defense for its first goal of the game. With 27:43 left to play, the Pioneers hammered the ball in for the tie and a bit of momentum.

But Leland wouldn't slow down. The ball bounced back and forth again and both teams were able to successfully defend against some close plays inside the D.

Things began to slow a little bit before Leland regained the momentum when Jessica Talaugon hammered the ball in off of a nice pass by Jessica Kolte to take over the lead again for the Chargers with 12:05 remaining in the game.

Once again the ball changed hands a couple of times, but both defenses stood strong and no more goals were scored, giving Leland another victory.

"The whole team is working well together," said Kalla. "There isn't just one person out there that does it all. Most of these girls came up from the junior varsity team together so they play together well."

Leland is coming off of a fourth-place finish last year that was not enough for a playoff birth, but this year the Chargers are already guaranteed a spot in the Central Coast Section tournament.

The Chargers aren't finished with the regular season yet, though. They were to face Live Oak on Oct. 25 at home--Live Oak was one of Leland's three ties so far this season--then they are off to Leigh to face the Longhorns on Oct. 27. Their final game of the regular season is against second-place Lynbrook (7-0-4 in league, 11-0-4 overall) on Nov. 1 to finish out the season. Leland and Lynbrook tied in their first meeting. The Vikings blanked Los Altos 1-0 in a league game last week.

Leland opened play last week fighting Westmont to a scoreless tie. The Warriors (2-4-5 in league) tied Live Oak (3-3-5) 2-2 later in the week.