Tie with ‘Cats helps Scots

But the Scots have a game in hand, which is important.

So when the two teams battled to a scoreless draw in Woodside Tuesday evening, it seemed it was the Wildcats who were the more desperate team in the final minutes of the game. Having dropped a 1-0 decision to Carlmont Jan. 8, Tuesday’s game was almost a must-win for Woodside (6-2-2 PAL Bay, 20 points; 9-4-3 overall) to extend its points lead, knowing Carlmont (5-1-3, 18 points, 8-3-5) still has an extra Bay Division game to play.

“I think it was must-win for both teams,” said Woodside head coach Alex Herrera.

But the tie means Carlmont controls its own destiny. It is a daunting one — the Scots will not only need to win out to grab the division crown, but they’ll have to go through fourth-place Aragon Thursday, fifth-place Menlo-Atherton next Tuesday and third-place Sequoia in the regular-season finale Feb. 12 if they are to win their first PAL Bay Division title since they tied with Aragon as co-champs in 2017. Carlmont’s last out-right Bay Division crown came in 2013.

Woodside has only two games remaining in Bay play against Burlingame and M-A.

“I told them, to keep motivation up, that this was a must-win game,” said Carlmont head Jillian Quan. “But it was really a must-not-lose game. I’m good with the tie. It doesn’t change (the standings) much.”

Quan, however, is relieved with the tie because after an evenly played first half, Woodside dominated the second. An early turnover moments after the second-half kickoff led to Evelyn Tolver making a long run into the attacking third.

It was a precursor to a final 40 minutes that saw the Wildcats put the Scots on their back foot. Woodside had a number of opportunities to produce chances, but not many dangerous shots were produced, despite having three corner kicks and a handful of free kicks.

But the Wildcats did produce the two most dangerous chances of the game, both coming in the second half. Woodside forced a turnover in the Carlmont end and quickly sent a ball into space where Ellie Sala ran onto the ball and blasted the hardest shot of the game to that point — but it was right at Carlmont goalkeeper Sam Tow, who merely had to catch the ball in the 59th minute.

But with about two minutes left in regulation, Tow came up big to preserve the draw. The Wildcats drew a free kick 15 yards out near the left sideline. The ball was put on frame, with Tow slapping it off the crossbar and then was cleared away by the Scots’ defense.

“I thought we dominated the second half,” Herrera said.

Quan admitted as much and while her defensive back line was confident, poised and willing to knock the ball around in their own end, it sometimes came at their own detriment.

It’s a slippery slope to play with the ball so much in the back because all it takes is one simple mistake or a slight deflection and suddenly the opponent is in on goal.

Quan said she and the team have been working on playing out of the back, but that Woodside’s high press had the Scots playing backward more than they wanted to.

“We’ve tried all season to build out of the back,” Quan said. “This was the one game where their pressure really bothered us. We haven’t been in many of those situations.

“The last 10, 15 minutes, we just had to lock in (defensively).”

Carlmont’s only legitimate scoring chance came in the 56th minute when they took advantage of drop ball deep in the Wildcats’ end, with Eva Awoyinka latching on to the ball and bullling her way through the Woodside defense to get off a shot that was a routine save for Woodside goalkeeper Gigi Perez.

The game was much more evenly played in the opening 40 minutes. Woodside owned the first five minutes of the game, but Carlmont weathered the initial onslaught and started putting its own pressure on the Wildcats’ defense for the next 10 minutes. The teams spent the rest of the first half trading attacks.

Now the Scots will spend the next 10 days trying to improve on Tuesday’s decision and the math is real easy.

“Win our last three games, win the (Bay Division) championship,” Quan said.