“She’s 14,” Emily Flores said with a smile and a chuckle.
“I was just kind of shocked,” Heather Flores said of the questioning. “I don’t know why I would be playing in a high school game if I was too young. I didn’t think they would bring something up like that.”
Flores expects most people to, pardon the pun, overlook her when it comes to soccer. She’s usually the smallest player on the field. Up close, she has a sweet, innocent smile, her teeth in braces, hinting that she might not have hit her teens yet.
But put a soccer ball in front of her and she becomes explosive. She tends to rise above the opposition.
“I’ve always been the tiniest on the field, so I’m used to it,” she said. “I guess I’m underestimated, but when I come out it changes the whole perspective of everybody. They’re like, ‘Get [Flores].’ It makes me feel good.”
Flores sure made the Eagles feel good while in the North County Challenge. She scored four goals in four victories, helping Estancia end a four-game skid.
Flores, who leads the team with seven goals, did all that while playing on a bad hip. She injured her left hip in a loss to Huntington Beach Dec. 16. It didn’t seem like a serious injury, more of a nagging hip flexor strain. Yet it is the worst injury Flores has suffered in her nine years of playing soccer.
At times during games, Estancia first-year coach Jessica Gatica had to take Flores out to conserve her energy or to relieve some of the pain.
Against Valencia for the tournament title, Flores got banged around a bit. She had to sit.
