Thrilling repeat for SHP girls’ soccer

“It came down to the last minute of the game and the kids kept fighting, just like Salinas,” Gators head coach Ramiro Arredondo said. “Salinas was a great opponent. But we got the lucky bounce.”

Driving into the wind throughout the second half, the Gators remained undeterred when freshman forward Iris O’Connor sprinted up the middle to receive a through ball from forward Megan Tinsley. As the Salinas goalkeeper backpedaled, O’Connor veered toward the right and booted a quick angle toward the left post.

The shot struck the upright, but the sharp angle banked in for the game-winning score, setting off a Gators celebration just outside the cage.

“I took a touch, and then a second touch, and I was like: ‘Oh, snap, the keeper’s going to get this one,’” O’Connor said. “Then she started backing up and I decided to shoot it. … I didn’t think it was going to go in, honestly. But, yeah, wide shots.”

Neither Tinsley nor Salinas goalkeeper Laryssa Venegas looked as though they’d finish the game earlier in the second half. The two converged for a brutal collision near the front of the penalty box in the 67th minute, falling to the ground side by side, each in obvious pain.

Tinsley got back to her feet a few seconds later while Venegas remained grounded for several minutes. Even though the senior eventually got back to her feet, she was forced to leave the field for one minute due to the injury stoppage. The gutsy goalkeeper checked back in, though, playing the final 10 minutes of regulation.

SHP demonstrated plenty of guts of its own, playing into a strong downfield wind the entire second half. Once Salinas flipped the field with a scoreless tie at the half, it seemed only a matter of time before the Gators succumbed. But they never did.

“It was definitely because a lot of our game play is just balls in the air and no one can really stop that,” O’Connor said. “I think we just really adjusted. Our team really knows how to do that. We just adjusted and started playing balls on the ground, and it really helped our play.”

But had it not been for a brilliant save by Sacred Heart Prep goalkeeper Sofia Moretti in the closing minutes of the first half, the Gators would not have had the chance to win it in the final minutes of the game.

In the 38th minute, with Salinas playing into the win, senior midfielder Vivianne Mendoza sent a nice cross in for freshman forward Elizabeth Pozas. Moretti read the pass all the way, though, and committed to it in flight, charging toward Pozas, who received the ball in tempo cutting in from the right side. Two steps into her advance, however, Moretti dove in to save the day, booting the ball away with a sliding tackle.

It was a risky timing play, but one that Arredondo said his sophomore goalkeeper played perfectly.

“I think it was the right time,” Arredondo said. “We worked on the breakaways [the previous day] and she was able to read the forward coming right at her. She made a great save and the defenders backed her up; we were able to clear it out.”

The two teams exchanged early chances. In the seventh minute, the Gators missed just over the crossbar when junior Juliana Rosen drifted off the right side for a boomer that flew just high. Two minutes later, Salinas rattled the ball around in the penalty area before Moretti scampered over to cover a deflection.

The Gators aren’t the tallest team, and as time wore on, they seemed more like gnats than Gators in the sense they continued creating intensity in the direction of the north goal despite the biting crosswind toward the south.

“I think that was a counterattack we had talked about,” Arredondo said. “The way we wanted to beat this team was defend really well — we were kind of able to outnumber them towards the end — and the breakaway, Iris showed great composure and great speed.”

The title marks Sacred Heart Prep’s fifth all-time CCS girls’ soccer championship. It is also the second time the Gators have won back-to-back crowns, the previous time coming in 2014 and ’15 during the peak years of current U.S. women’s national team player Tierna Davidson’s varsity career.

Next up, the Gators advance to the CIF Northern California Division IV tournament. As the No. 8 seed, Sacred Heart Prep travels to No. 1 Branson for Tuesday’s opener at 3 p.m.