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The Berkeley High girls’ soccer team continued their undefeated run in ACCAL play on Thursday with a 3-0 win over El Cerrito, getting two goals from junior forward Annie Borton and one from sophomore Maura Fitzgerald. 

Borton and Fitzgerald have combined to score 27 goals in league play, with Fitzgerald the leading scorer with 16 goals. 

Fitzgerald got the scoring started early, hitting a long shot that bounced once and slipped past Gaucho goalkeeper Jenna Brace in the sixth minute. Borton scored just before halftime, taking a nice pass from Veronica Searles and just beating the oncoming Brace to tap the ball into the net. 

“(Brace) is a good goalie, but the ball just seemed to bounce around a lot today,” Borton said. “Sometimes you just need a little luck.” 

Although the ’Jackets had plenty of opportunities in the second half, they didn’t score their final goal until the 76h minute, when freshman Dea Wallach made a nice run down the right side and cracked a shot off the crossbar. The ball bounced around in front of the goal a few times before Borton headed it home. 

“Annie works so hard that she gets those scrappy goals,” Berkeley head coach Suzanne Sillett said. 

The ’Jackets are now 10-0 in league play, making an undefeated ACCAL season a distinct possibility. They have yet to trail in a league game and have recorded eight shutouts. 

With four games remaining, they face challenges in a home date against Richmond, then an away match at Alameda to finish the season. The Oilers held onto a scoreless tie for 65 minutes in their first match with Berkeley before falling 3-0, and Alameda will have home-field advantage against the ’Jackets, who play on a turf field. 

“We usually struggle on the road, because we’re not used to playing on a muddy field,” Sillett said. “But if the last game is for the league championship, we’ll be ready.” 

It would take some strange results for the final game to mean much beyond an undefeated season for the ’Jackets. El Cerrito was sitting in second place at 5-2-2 before Thursday’s game, so the Berkeley can clinch the league title with one more win, a virtual certainty against lightweights De Anza and Pinole Valley. 

The issue of motivation is one Sillett doesn’t worry about, even with her team clearly the class of their league. With last year’s season-ending 1-0 loss to Amador Valley in the North Coast Section playoffs still fresh in most players’ minds, she knows there will be no slacking off for her team. 

“We have a corps of players that motivate the rest of the players,” she said. “We have enough players on this team that are intrinsically motivated to be good soccer players that they don’t need a lot of pushing.”