Sage Hill girls’ soccer strikes in PKs for first CIF title
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ORANGE — As the minutes clicked away, one after another, deeper into the second half with so few chances materializing — and none of them amounting to anything of importance — Finley Maynard knew how Sage Hill’s first CIF Southern Section girls’ soccer final was going to end.
“We knew that maybe we weren’t going to score, because it’s so hard [to do so],” the Lightning’s junior goalkeeper said when it was done. “We had opportunities, and everyone went for it, but it’s just chance. It just happens.
“I think we all knew that was going to end up on penalties.”
It did, and that played to Sage Hill’s strengths. Four sensational finishes from the spot, and the Lightning (11-3-2) were celebrating a Division 4 championship after a tightly contested 100 minutes with longtime powerhouse La Mirada ended without a goal at El Modena High School.
The Matadores (11-8-6), seeking their fourth CIF title in 11 seasons and fifth in all, failed on their first and last kicks, with Kiersten Mahan’s attempt to the upper-right corner clanging off the crossbar to give Sage Hill a 4-3 triumph in the tiebreaker.
“It’s a special feeling,” said fourth-year Sage Hill head coach Issac Sierra, whose halftime adjustments gave the Lightning command in the second half and much of the 20-minute overtime session. “To win it at the end, it be on the last play of the game, it’s special. [This is] what we were shooting for from the jump. That was our conversation all year long, is we’re preparing to win, so make sure you do everything with the details that matter. ... We definitely had to deal with some adversity, but that’s part of what makes you a championship team, is understanding how to deal through adversity.
“For us to be in this moment today, it’s spectacular.”
The Matadores had the better of a sloppy first half in which neither side penetrated effectively upon reaching the attacking third, but the game was Sage Hill’s after Sierra dropped his back line deeper to deal with long balls and took a more direct approach to challenge La Mirada’s high defensive line.
The Lightning spent much of the rest of the game in the opposing half, seeking to isolate freshman forwards Gisselle Barron and Keila Fukuda behind a midfield anchored by Capri Hall, another freshman, and senior Cambria Thomas’ and freshman Elliot Trout’s work on the flanks.
Sage Hill built a 6-0 shot advantage in the second 40 minutes (13-4 for the game). Four shots on frame, but just one came close in the 68th minute when Marley Walker sent a long ball into the Matadores’ box. It took a big bounce, forcing goalkeeper Mia Cook to parry it over her crossbar.
Walker and freshman sweeper Jaden Rall commanded a superb defensive performance, cutting off balls and limiting La Mirada to just two shots on goal, neither particularly challenging for Maynard. The Matadores’ best chance arrived about halfway through the second period, but Brianna Briggs, with an open look at goal, couldn’t get a shot off as three defenders encircled her and Maynard grabbed the ball.
“I just landed on the ball,” she said. “Kind of jumped on it to get it, because I’m the only person who can hold onto the ball.”
Penalty kicks arrived to nobody’s surprise, and although La Mirada had advanced from the spot in the quarterfinals and semifinals, the Lightning was in charge right away.
“We practice this,” Sierra said. “I try to replicate this feeling as much as we can at practice. When you replicate it, it puts you a little more at ease. The first thing I tell them before those moments is pick your side and don’t change. It doesn’t matter if the keeper knows or thinks she knows [which way you’re going], pick your side and don’t change. Execute. And they do that.”
Barron fired a rocket to the left side of the net on the first attempt, and Giselle De Anda fired high on La Mirada’s first attempt. Fukuda, freshman defender Sydney Patel and Hall followed for Sage Hill — the first two firing to the upper-right corner, Hall to the lower-right — and were matched by the Matadores’ Zoey Santiago, Zoe Chang and Mia Carrillo.
Rall stepped up with a chance to clinch, but she put it too close to center, and Cook made the stop.
“I don’t really have good experience with penalty kicks,” she said. “I’m trying my best, but the nerves hit me real bad. I don’t really know if I’m going to make it. But Marley looked at me, and she said, ‘Finley has your back.’”
Maynard, whose save on the final attempt clinched a penalty-kicks triumph over Costa Mesa in the quarterfinals, didn’t have to make the final stop. Mahan’s try was inches too high.
The section title is Sage Hill’s 12th in all sports.
“This is something I’ve never experienced before,” she said as her team celebrated. “It’s just such an intimate special moment with the team. We’re very close, but that was the closest we’ve ever been. We were crying, screaming ... we had a goal to get to the final and win this thing, and we did. It’s awesome.”
Up next for Sage Hill: Next week’s CIF Southern California Regionals.
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