SSF closes in on title

With two games left to play in the regular season, South City (10-2-1, 31 points) holds a five-point lead over Sequoia (8-3-2, 26). The Warriors need a win over the next two games to clinch a division crown and a spot in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

“We thought we’d win it this year,” said South City head coach Salvador Navarro. “Last year we were so close (finishing third).”

Sequoia has set the standard in the Ocean Division for the last several years, with the Cherokees beating the Warriors twice on their way to the 2017 title.

This year, the division changed its scheduling, with every team in the Ocean playing each other three times. Sequoia posted a 3-1 win Dec. 14. South City rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final 20 minutes to forge a 3-3 tie Jan. 23.

Tuesday, South City finally got the best of Sequoia in Redwood City.

“The improvement South City showed this year was incredible,” said Sequoia head coach Melissa Schmidt. “They have come a long way.”

The Warriors benefit from a core of player who play year-round — both club and during the high school season. That familiarity shows on the field as the Warriors did to Sequoia Tuesday what they have been doing to teams all season long: dominate possession, send through balls to their skillful strikers and then absolutely shut down the opposing offense.

Sequoia employs a similar style, but the Warriors simply did it better.

“All props to South City. They kept pressing the entire game,” Schmidt said.

The Warriors were first to nearly every loose ball and were not afraid to dive in and challenge the Cherokees when they did have the ball. It resulted in a lot of turnovers and unconnected passes for Sequoia and instant offense for South City.

Freshman center midfielder Fatima Garcia paced the South City attack early on as she was in the middle of everything for the Warriors, winning balls and distributing probing through passes.

“She has pretty amazing ball control,” Navarro said of Garcia.

And running onto many of those passes was Alex Jara, who might be the most deadly striker in the entire PAL. While she received support from Fernanda Ramirez and Iliana Sanchez, Jara was working mostly by herself now that her running mate, Camelia Nasrah, appears lost for the season with a knee injury.

That enabled the Cherokees to focus a lot more on Jara, which Schmidt did by man-marking her the entire game — meaning, she assigned one defender to shadow her.

“I never man mark,” Schmidt said.

But with a lot of the focus on Jara, it allowed plenty of space and opportunities for the rest of the offense.

“They have three girls on her (defending),” Navarro said. “That’s how they give opportunities to us.”

It appeared the Cherokees might escape the first half unscathed as they dodged a couple bullets when a pair of South City shots banged off the crossbar, but a moment of brilliance from Jara swung the momentum to the Warriors’ favor. Estreya Gonzalez, who had won the ball just past midfield, feathered a pass to Jara, who was stationed at the top of the penalty box with her back to the goal. As the pass came toward her, she swung her body to the right, acting like a gate opening to let the ball roll past her. At the same time, the move shielded and boxed her defender on her back, who could nothing other than foul Jara.

That might have been the better option because that move opened up space and time for Jara, who then picked out the far right corner of the net and slotted it home in the 31st minute for the game’s only goal.

“She’s incredible,” Schmidt said of Jara.

Sequoia came out in the second half and played like a team that was playing for its title hopes. The Cherokees were a lot more aggressive in attacking the ball, relieving some of the pressure South City was applying by doing the same to the Warriors.

“In the second half, they settled in and picked up the pressure,” Schmidt said. “We were settling more into our game.”

The Cherokees showed they have a potential game-changer of their own in freshman flanker Heather Benway, who has speed to burn. She first showed her wheels on a burst down the left sideline in the first half, simply blowing past the defense. But her touches were few and far between in the opening 40 minutes.

In the second half, she got a couple more opportunities and they were dangerous simply because the Warriors could not match her pace.

Benway could not find the golden final touch, however, as a couple of breakaways came close, but came up empty.

“That’s what we talked about at halftime. We have someone who can run past anyone,” Schmidt said. “She’s had some great finishes this year, just not today.”