Girls soccer was sanctioned as an interscholastic sport within the San Diego Section in 1982. Thirty-three years later, Castle Park and Chula Vista high schools both have their first division championships.
“There’s a first for everything,” quipped a wet but exuberant Castle Park coach Victor Vargas following last Friday’s 2-0 victory against sixth-seeded Hoover in the Division V title match at Madison High School.
“It’s a great feeling. From where we were two years ago, with just two wins, to where we are now, is a dream come true.”
The CIF titles are the first for the Lady Trojans and Lady Spartans as both teams made their debut in the section finals.
“We’ve got a very young team — nine of our players are freshmen — so we didn’t know what we were capable of when we started the season,” said an equally pleased CVHS coach Wayne Brewton after his team recorded a stunning 1-0 upset of top-seeded Olympian in an all-Metro Conference championship match-up for the Division IV title.
“Our goal was just to keep improving each game. To go all the way to the CIF championship game, there aren’t any words to adequately describe that.”
Finals showdown
Fifth-seeded Castle Park (11-12-2) recorded upset wins in the opening two rounds of the playoffs — defeating fourth-seeded Julian, 7-0, in a quarterfinal game Feb. 25 and then eliminating top-seeded Classical Academy, 1-0, in the semifinals on Feb. 28.
The Lady Cardinals (11-8-1) also played the upset card by defeating third-seeded Imperial, 1-0, in the quarterfinals before eliminating seventh-seeded Montgomery, 1-0, in the semifinals.
Castle Park entered last Friday’s championship game as the higher-seeded team — and played like it.
The Lady Trojans controlled virtually all of the action in the first half in taking a 2-0 lead.
Michelle Montoya finally broke through with a goal to put Castle Park up 1-0 in the 12th minute.
Hoover goalkeeper Leslie Renteria blocked a penalty shot taken by CP’s Kimberly Navarro with 18:15 elapsed in the opening half.
Ashley Guzman glanced a shot off the post with 7:30 to play in the half; she got a second chance 30 seconds later and didn’t miss to increase the Lady Trojan lead to 2-0.
The Lady Cardinals ramped up their play a notch in the second half but CP freshman ’keeper Alejandra Santos was required to make just one save.
By contrast, Renteria finished the game with nine saves.
Hoover entered the match having scored 43 goals on the season while allowing 28; Castle Park had scored 33 goals and allowed 38.
The teams had not met this season.
“We knew nothing about them other than what you see on film and that often doesn’t mean too much,” Vargas said. “We wanted to keep possession as much as we could.
“The idea was that if we could pressure their defense that we could create some scoring chances. We had two go in; we could have had four.”
Castle Park’s players didn’t want to relinquish the division championship trophy after they received it. They danced with it, posed with it — and kissed it.
“Amazing!” Montoya exclaimed.
“I’m really excited,” Andrea Parra added. “We stuck to what we did in practice. We came out for the win and were not going home without it.”
Vargas said his team was so excited because of the history-making nature of the event.
“You never know what can happen next year, so I told the girls to make the most of what could be their only opportunity to win a CIF title.
“Now, 10 to 15 years later, they can come back to the school and look up at the banner hanging on the wall and point to their kids and say they were part of putting that banner up there.”
Luv ya blue
The Olympian-Chula Vista match featured a slow start, with each team creating just one good scoring chance in the opening 20 minutes. The pace picked up after Chula Vista’s Alahna Perez managed to score with 18 minutes left in the first half to put the underdog Lady Spartans ahead 1-0.
The play developed off a throw-in on the right attacking side. The ball bounded near the top of the 18-yard box and Perez managed to finally corral it and tee the ball up for a shot into the Olympian net.
Chula Vista freshman goalkeeper Naylea Sanchez was flattened by an Olympian forward minutes after the Spartan goal and left the game with one save to her credit. Her replacement, fellow classmate Mireyly Ramirez, finished the game without allowing a goal to make Perez’s tally stand up as the game-winner.
Ramirez was credited with six saves in relief duty.
The Lady Eagles (16-8-3) enjoyed a wider range of territorial possession in the second half but the Lady Spartan defense proved up to the task by continually disrupting any deep forays.
With 13 minutes left in regulation play and, sensing the flow of events on the field, Chula Vista’s fans became exceptionally vocal with chants of “We have defense! We have defense!”
With the score remaining 1-nil in the Lady Spartans’ favor in the final minute, those same fans began to shower their team with further accolades as the chants changed to “Ole! Ole! Chula! Chula!”
When the final whistle sounded, Lady Spartan players wasted no time in celebrating the school’s first girls soccer championship.
“It was exciting to win and I’m so happy,” Perez exclaimed after the awards ceremony. “I kept telling the girls that we needed another goal, that one might not be enough, but it was.”
“These girls worked so hard throughout the season and played with so much heart, I am so proud of them,” Brewton piped up. “Hopefully, this is the beginning of a legacy we hope to have. It’s exciting.”
Olympian goalkeeper Breanna Bonilla was credited with two saves in the contest.
Lady Eagles coach Aaron Rossi was obviously disappointed by the game’s outcome.
“We didn’t do anything the first half and we came out to play in the second half,” Rossi said. “You just can’t play one half and expect to win. We knew they had a couple of dangerous players that we had to guard against. We weren’t organized at the start and that’s when they scored. This is a lesson for the girls for the future.
“Hopefully, we can build on this momentum.”
Chula Vista (15-8-2) received the No. 3 seed in the section playoffs and successfully fought off challenges from No. 6 seed Southwest El Centro (3-1 quarterfinal win) and No. 7 seed Monte Vista (2-1 victory in the semifinals) to advance to the division championship game.
The Lady Spartans received the No. 7 seed in this week’s Southern California regional playoffs, drawing No. 2 seed Pasadena Maranatha (21-6-2) in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
