Picture this: it's the season opener for Arizona Soccer and the Cats are in Norman, Okla. to take on the No. 16 ranked Sooners. Through the first 40 minutes, no one has been able to find a goal yet but the Wildcats are starting to lean that way. Head coach Tony Amato pulls aside his two young forwards on the bench, Brynn Moga and Jill Aguilera. He says to them, "You've got five minutes left in the half, give me everything you've got."
Aguilera steps onto the pitch and immediately gets a chance. A defensive effort from Tia Painilainen takes the ball off the Sooners. Painilainen dishes to Amanda Porter who is standing near midfielder. Porter knocks down the bouncing ball and volleys a through-ball to the streaking Aguilera, but Moga stands 10 feet offside behind the Sooners line. Aguilera calls her off and Moga steps to the side. Aguilera turns on the jets and flies by the defensive line of the Sooners and slots a shot past the goalkeeper into the corner of the net.
"I thought it was awesome because I went in the last five minutes of the first half," said Aguilera. "Tony [Amato] told me I had five minutes and I needed to run and do my best. Brynn [Moga] went in with me and she said to me 'let's be the difference, we can do it.' I remember Tia [Painilainen] passing it to [Amanda] Porter, and then Porter passing it through. I knew Brynn was offside so I was screaming at her not to touch the ball because there was no one else around us. Being able to get that first goal in the last couple of minutes was pretty cool."
Pretty cool indeed for redshirt freshman Aguilera who was coming off last season when she tore her ACL early in the Wildcats' campaign. She was the first Arizona player to knock in a goal this season.
"It's crazy, you don't really think about it. Over the summer I had played with my brace whenever I played soccer just because I didn't want to risk anything. Right when we came back we had our first week of camp and I didn't play with my brace which felt weird because I had been using it a lot. Not playing with it that first time vs. Oklahoma was good for me because it helped me get my mental strength back, knowing that I could play without that brace, knowing that I'm not going to get hurt, and knowing that I need to be strong in every tackle. When you go in halfway that's when a lot of people get hurt."
That's a big mental hurdle for anyone to jump over. But Aguilera was able to do it and got back onto the pitch this season. She started off earning a few minutes here and there for Amato, but has since started in six of the last seven games as the Wildcats' forward.
"Of course, every forward's dream is to score in every game they play in, or assist or do something amazing. I do strive for that, but for me I more so just want to make a difference. I want people to notice when I'm not playing on the field. At the beginning of the season when I wasn't playing a lot I had a meeting with Tony and he told me I needed to make him feel like he needed me on the field. That he would know that I would make every single run and give it everything I've got. Ever since then I've been doing that and I think that meeting really helped me. For me, making a difference on the field is everything."
So what changed for Aguilera? How did she go from getting only one goal and an average of just over thirty minutes a game in the first nine matches, to starting and averaging over fifty minutes a game in the last nine? As well as earning two assists and another goal (the only player on the team this season to get an assist and a goal in the same match)?
"I do a lot of extra shooting with Kate [Norton]. She has really helped me and motivated me throughout the season. At practice, I'll make a tackle and she'll reinforce that or help me work on it. I also do a lot of film with her. I like doing film because I get to see exactly what I'm doing and what to keep doing versus what to adjust. The extra stuff I do after practice and the extra film I do has helped me a lot throughout the season to grow as a player."
So Norton was there for the technical side of things, but Aguilera has had another person in her corner since the beginning – her mom, Julie Eshelman.
"She's my best friend. She comes to Tucson a lot during the season because she doesn't like to miss games. She's always been there for me and she was there when I got hurt. She left for only a week or so during that time. We're like the same person, so that's why we're such good friends."
Looking forward, Aguilera has a lot of confidence left for the Cats season. Arizona will take on No. 4 seeded Florida State this weekend – a team that won the NCAA Championship in 2014.
"We deserve to be where we are and we deserve to go farther. This season has been a total turnaround from last year even though I was the one on the bench. Being a part of this team and making it to the tournament and being able to play I feel like I have made a difference this year and I'm part of our success. Being in the second round is really important to me and I think we can go very far."
The Cats will return to Palo Alto this weekend for their match with FSU. This is their second trip to the Bay Area in 2017 after an earlier trip this season when they fell 1-0 to the No. 1 overall-seeded Stanford Cardinal.
"When we played Stanford I had 30-something people go to the game that were friends and family. My mom already posted on Facebook about it. Of course, she always does that. Hopefully there will be a lot of people there, FSU is a long way from home, and so having a home-field advantage will help. If we get to play in the next round there will still be a lot of people from my hometown to help cheer us on too, so I'm happy to be able to go back home."
