M-A exacts revenge on Woodside

“We have 10 seniors,” said M-A head coach Jason Luce. “A lot of these kids were on the team last year. They remembered.”

M-A got some payback in the team’s first meeting Jan. 20, when the Bears thumped the Wildcats 4-1. Thursday, the Bears got the ultimate revenge in the regular-season finale. Getting a long-range strike in each half, The Bears posted a 2-0 win. That, coupled with Carlmont’s 1-0 win over Sequoia, denied Woodside the Bay Division title, with the Scots leapfrogging them.

“No words,” said Woodside head coach Alex Herrera when asked about the game. “[M-A is] really good on long balls.”

But there is a difference between just booting the ball forward and shooting from distance — and one begat the other for M-A (5-4-3 PAL Bay, 18 points; 9-5-5 overall). It was apparently early on that the Bears were simply going to take their shots with balls over the top and then hope their forwards could win the race. They managed to get the ball into the Woodside penalty box a couple times in the opening minutes, while Woodside (7-3-2, 23 points, 11-5-3 overall) saw Evelyn Tolver make a long run before being ridden off the ball by M-A defender Emma Holtz.

In the 12th minute, the Bears cashed in a chance. Sam Ruiz started the play by simply clearing a ball from her own end toward the left flank. Cassidy Thomas was in a race with a Woodside defender and when she looked up, she took advantage.

With the Wildcats’ goalkeeper playing well off her line, Thomas hit a long chip from 40 yards out and over the goalie — who had no chance tracking back to knock the ball wide as the Bears took a 1-0 lead.

“Our strength all year is going over the top,” Luce said.

Suddenly the pressure amped up on the Woodside bench and it seemed it would be alleviated minutes later, when the Bears earned a corner kick in the 16th minute, which the Wildcats cleared.

To a wide open Tolver up top, who had the ball 70 yards from goal and only only the goalkeeper to beat. But she had too much time to think about and she sliced a shot wide right from 25 yards.

But the Wildcats continued to press on offense. Just before halftime, they had another scoring opportunity, but a shot was saved with a dive by M-A goalkeeper and the Bears led 1-0 at halftime.

They doubled their lead shortly after the second-half whistle. Just two minutes in, Ruiz latched onto a loose ball and put a shot on goal from 30 yards out, that dipped just under the crossbar and over the goalie’s hands to put the Bears up 2-0.

“[Ruiz is] our heartbeat,” Luce said of the four-year varsity player. “I’ve relied on her a lot.”

Now Woodside was in hurry-up mode. The Wildcats sent wave after wave at the the Bears’ defense, which withstood the pressure well. Woodside tried its foot at some long-range shots, but were not as fortunate, despite outshooting M-A 7-3 over the final 40 minutes.

While Luce’s team was not playing for the Bay Division title this season, he knows what it takes to win the crown of one of the toughest divisions in the Central Coast Section.

“I’ve been in the wars down the stretch,” Luce said. “I knew [Woodside wasn’t] going to celebrate tonight. … I never doubted my team. I know we have champions.

“This team played excellent (Thursday). This was the best version of us.”

Despite the loss, Woodside still qualified for the Central Coast Section tournament with a second-place finish.

The Bears, meanwhile finished in a tie for third place with Sequoia. But the Ravens will earn the Bay Division’s final automatic Central Coast Section playoff berth based on a head-to-head tiebreaker.

But M-A should have enough points to qualify as an at-large.