Carlmont’s Nicole Franklin, left and Sequoia’s Hazel Croft battle for control of the ball. The Scots rode Franklin’s goal five minutes into the match for a 1-0 win over the Ravens. That, coupled with M-A’s 2-0 win over Woodside, gives Carlmont the PAL Bay Division title on the final day of the regular season.
When Carlmont walked off the pitch Thursday evening, the girls’ soccer hopefuls didn’t know whether or not to celebrate.
The Lady Scots (7-2-3 PAL Bay, 24 points; 10-4-5 overall) had just wrapped up a 1-0 victory at Sequoia, but the game that mattered the most to their season was being played three miles away with Woodside hosting Menlo-Atherton.
Before the final game of the regular season, Woodside led Carlmont by two points in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division standings. Carlmont needed a win against Sequoia to stay alive in the title hunt, and a little help from M-A along the way.
“Your result is one part, but it’s really a waiting game then,” Carlmont head coach Jillian Quan said. “We did our job, we came away with the win, and we just had to wait for the other result.”
Carlmont’s prayers were answered, as Menlo-Atherton upset Woodside 2-0, giving Carlmont the championship in their first year in the Bay Division. Carlmont also became the first PAL girls soccer team to champion the lower Ocean and upper Bay divisions back-to-back, after being promoted this season.
“Everybody probably thought we were underdogs coming up from Ocean,” Quan said, “but we used that as a bit of an advantage at the beginning of the league. Teams were underestimating us so we took advantage of it. The second round of league play is a bit tighter, but we were able to hold our own.”
Quan said her goal before the matchup with Sequoia was to prepare her players for a game she knew might decide their league title chances.
“It’s just really about making sure the girls were motivated and understood the mission for today,” Quan said.
The Scots’ matchup with Sequoia was relatively uneventful, other than a goal in the first five minutes from sophomore midfielder Nicole Franklin. Quan said the early goal helped the team build momentum they carried through the rest of the game.
“Going up definitely boosted our morale and our energy,” Quan said, “going up and knowing we had the lead and could go forward from there.”
The Ravens (5-4-3, 18 points; 8-8-4) held possession offensively for the majority of the game’s final 10 minutes, but were unable to convert it into scoring chances.
“They obviously scored early, but I was really proud of the girls for not letting that get them down,” Sequoia head coach Melissa Schmidt said. “I think that we controlled a lot of the play, but we just didn’t find a way to finish.”
Carlmont and Sequoia met earlier in the season, when the Scots won 2-1. Despite similar results, Quan said this matchup was much more contested.
“They just kept attacking, kept countering, and kept pushing,” Quan said. “This game, they just wanted it more, you could see it from them.”
Even with the loss, Sequoia will finish in third place in the division and automatically qualify for the Central Coast Section playoff tournament.
“We’re a pretty young team,” Schmidt said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and getting that third place and the [automatic qualifier] is exactly where I wanted to be. I set that as a goal in the beginning of the season.”
The Scots will join Sequoia and advance to CCS with a division title under their belts. There, they’ll face the best competition the region has to offer, likely within the top-ranked Open Division.
“It’s really just making sure the girls are locked in, making sure our whole game plan and everything we’ve talked about this year is really following through,” Quan said. “Because we know CCS, going into the Open Division is going to be tough, and we’ll be facing some really good teams.”
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