SHP falls short of finals

“You have to hand it to Soquel,” said Jamie Frank, SHP’s first-year head coach. “They deserved to win that game.”

SHP (21-7) led 6-5 after three quarters and scored early in the fourth for a 7-5 advantage, but the loss of two key players hurt the Gators down the stretch — sophomore Bella Bachler suffered a gash near her eye late in the second quarter and sophomore hole set Eleanor Facey picked up her third kickout and was thus ejected from the game midway through the third.

Bachler was triggering the SHP offense through the first two quarters. She scored a goal and had several near misses before incurring her injury on defense. Eleanor Facey was a presence in hole set, consistently drawing a double team defensively.

Their replacements, Ashley Penner and Olivia Smith, respectively, played well, with Penner ended up scoring a pair of second-half goals.

But Soquel turned up the pressure defensively and used that to jump-start its offense over the final seven minutes. The Knights had four of their eight steals in the fourth period and held the Gators to just two shots.

“We’re just used to playing with all our players,” Frank said. “(When we lost both players) I think the energy changed. We got a little deflated and they capitalized.”

The two teams had split a pair of regular-season meetings this season, with Soquel winning the last matchup at the end of September. The Knights have been building a solid program over the last several years and they showed they were not intimidated by the Gators by taking a quick 1-0 lead less than 15 seconds into the match.

Undaunted, SHP showed it was up for the challenge as well, as the Gators answered right back a minute later when Annabel Facey took a pass from Bachler on the perimeter and fired it home off the goaltender’s fingertips.

Soquel (24-4) took a 2-1 lead at the midway point of the opening period on the first of Shea Salvino’s five goals. Salvino managed all this while playing with two kick-outs over the final three-and-half quarters. She earned two in the first five minutes of the match.

“[Salvino is] really talented,” Frank said. “She stepped up and played great.”

SHP responded with back-to-back goals to lead 3-2 at the quarter break. Annabel Facey scored her second goal of the game, with Bachler picking up her second assist of the match. Bachler then gave SHP its first lead, converting a pass from Alexandra Sczczerba.

SHP stepped up its game in the second period, and while the Gators scored only one goal, they held Soquel to just four shots in the period.

Unfortunately, the Knights converted on a pair of them. Salvino scored both goals for Soquel, the second of which gave the Knights a 4-3 lead, but the Gators forged a 4-4 tie at halftime on a Ella Woodhead goal from the set off an assist from Annabel Facey.

The Gators grabbed the momentum in the third period, scoring the first two goals for a 6-4 advantage. Woodhead scored again from 2 meters, with Sczczerba dumping a pass into the set.

With under a minute left in the period, SHP goaltender Nellie McAdams came up with a fingertip save that pushed a shot off the crossbar and out.

But Soquel closed to 6-5 with a power-play goal with 15 seconds left.

SHP pushed its lead back to two goals, 7-5, less than 30 seconds into the final period on Penner’s second goal of the game, again off an assist from Woodhead.

But the Knights fired right back 26 seconds later to close to 7-6. It was the first of four straight goals for the Knights, who advance to CCS title game for the second time in three years. They lost to the Gators 7-3 in the 2016 Division II title game.

Division II

No. 1 Menlo School 8, No. 4 Aptos 4

The top-seeded Knights advanced to the CCS Division II championship match for the second year in a row with the win over the Mariners in a CCS Division II semifinal.

Menlo (19-9) led 1-0 after one period before opening it up with four in the second for take a commanding 5-1 lead at halftime.

Sophie Golub, Rusha Bhat and Annie Bisconti each scored twice to lead the Knights. Mia Rosenblatt and Sydney Bianchi rounded out the scoring.

Menlo will take on No. 3 Saratoga (24-3), which beat Aragon 5-4.

No. 3 Saratoga 5, No. 7 Aragon 4

The Dons held an early 2-0 lead, but the Falcons rallied over the final three quarters to end Aragon’s season in the semifinals of the Division II tournament.

Aragon (14-12) led 2-0 after one period, but Saratoga scored four time in the second for a 4-3 advantage. The Dons tied it at 4-all in the third, but were shut out in the fourth.

Maria Sell closed out her Aragon career by scoring all four goals for the Dons and also coming up with four steals. She finished the season with 112 goals for the Dons.

Goaltender Hannah Flynn had a big game, finishing with 19 saves and assisting on a pair of goals.