Panthers tightening grip on Ocean Division lead

Burlingame had opened Ocean Division with a perfect 4-0 mark and while the Panthers couldn’t win a division title Tuesday, they certainly took a big step toward it when they faced 3-1 Mills at Capuchino.

After a close first half, the Panthers steadily pulled away in the second half, posting a 17-8 decision to improve to 5-0 in Ocean Division play.

“The first two quarters, I expected it to stay close,” said Burlingame first-year head coach Tiffany Spohrer.

But she also expected her team to pull away in the second half.

“That’s how our games have been going,” Spohrer said.

While Mills (3-2 PAL Ocean, 3-2 overall) is not out of contention with its second division loss, the Vikings now have to climb over another team if they are to get back in the race. Hillsdale also went into Tuesday’s match against San Mateo with only one loss in Ocean play and the Knights kept the pressure on the Panthers, following a 16-10 win over the Bearcats.

The Knights’ only division loss, however, is to Burlingame.

Burlingame (5-0 PAL Ocean) was led by Aria Sherwood, who scored five times in the first half, including two of her team’s first three goals. Her strike off an assist Ari Beser gave the Panthers a 3-1 lead with 4:19 left in the first period, taking a pass on the right wing off a restart.

But when Mills’ Sofia Madrigal, who also scored five times, scored a lightning quick goal on a kickout with 1:10 left in the opening quarter, the Vikings were down only 3-2.

The Panthers had a chance to put up a big goal total, but Mills goalie Katerina Tilis kept her team in the match, making seven of her 16 saves in the opening quarter. She stopped a trio of shots on fastbreaks, winning the 1-v-1 matchup each time.

She capped her first half by stopping a 5-meter penalty shot as the Vikings trailed 8-4 at halftime.

“She’s been doing that,” said Mills head coach Art Tilis, who said that gives Katarina Tilis more than 60 saves on the season.

Even Burlingame’s Spohrer was impressed.

“Really good goalie,” Spohrer said. “I thought she had really good awareness and communicated with her teammates well. Even my goalies commented on it.”

But each time it appeared Mills was going to get back in the game, Burlingame responded. A Sherwood drive down the left wing gave Burlingame a 4-2 lead to open the scoring in the second period. And when Charlotte Guglielmi converted a midpool pass, the Panthers had their largest lead of the game to that point, 5-2.

But back-to-back goals from Mills’ Madrigal, the second coming with 2:51 left in the half, cut the Vikings’ deficit to 6-4.

But Burlingame ended the half with a pair of unanswered goals from Julia Bowler and Sherwood to lead by four, 8-4, at the half.

“[Sherwood] is an amazing player,” Spohrer said. “She is an all-around, rock-star player.”

The Vikings got as close as 8-5 when Madrigal scored the first goal of the second half as the shot clock ticked down.

But Burlingame answered right back on Guglielmi’s second goal of the game. She would finish with a hat trick.

When Beser, who finished with three goals as well, scored off an assist from Leia Burlingnham, the Panthers had increased their lead to 12-6 before adding five more over the final seven minutes of the match.

Burlingame had 10 players record a point, including goalie Lucy Kendall, who had two assists. Bowler had two goals and a team-leading three assists.

In addition to Madrigal’s five goals and an assist, Mills got single goals from Rachel Jiron, Layla Wong and Crystal Yu.

“I honestly think we shot ourselves in the foot. A lot of mistakes,” Coach Tilis said. “[The game] was really important. We wanted the girls to see (Burlingame). Now they know (what they have to do in the second round).”