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Maura Fitzgerald scored her second hat trick in a week as the Berkeley Yellowjackets romped over Pinole Valley, 7-0, on Tuesday in Berkeley. 

Fitzgerald also scored three times against De Anza last week. The sophomore leads the ACCAL with 23 goals in league play. 

Tuesday’s win puts the ’Jackets (14-4, 13-0) one game away from an undefeated ACCAL season. They have already clinched the league title for the second year in a row, but lost league games last season and would love to run the table this year with a win over Alameda on Thursday. 

“It’s pretty important as far as (North Coast Section playoffs) seeding, but I know our players want to do it for other reasons,” Berkeley head coach Suzanne Sillett said. “They know we have a chance at it, and they’re fired up about it. They’ll be disappointed if we don’t do it.” 

Sillett wants her team’s confidence as high as possible for the NCS playoffs, as they will likely get a tough matchup with a team from the EBAL. Berkeley’s pre-season schedule consisted of EBAL teams, and Sillett’s young squad went just 1-4 against them. The ’Jackets lost in the NCS first round last year, 1-0, to Amador Valley at home. 

Sillett said her team has improved a lot from those early defeats. 

“We were a brand-new team in the first couple weeks, because most of our players had never played together,” she said. “But they’ve learned a lot, and they’re more well prepared to face any of those tough teams.” 

It took the ’Jackets a while to get going against the Spartans, but Fitzgerald finally dented the net in the 24th minute, taking a pass right in front of the goal from fellow forward Annie Borton for an easy goal. Borton scored 2 goals of her own and had 4 assists in the game. 

Borton assisted on Fitzgerald’s other goals as well, finding her wide open in the Pinole Valley (9-8-2, 7-5-1) box again in the 33rd minute, then taking a shot that rebounded off the Spartan goalkeeper right to Fitzgerald, who scored to finish her hat trick. 

Fitzgerald got an assist during injury time in the first half, putting in a corner kick that Borton headed home for a score. 

Christina Skaar and freshman Dea Wallach also scored goals for the ’Jackets.