Defending champion Estancia girls’ soccer bows out in Division 5 semifinals
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Estancia brought its customary grit and attacking acumen into its CIF Southern Section girls’ soccer semifinal, but the fortune that’s so often accompanying was mostly absent.
The Eagles’ drive for successive Division 5 championships ended Saturday evening in a 3-2 defeat to visiting Viewpoint, a margin that might have been more significant — or gone the other way. It ended a 14-match unbeaten streak since mid-December.
Estancia (12-4-4) struggled to manage the Patriots’ tidiness and guile much of the game but responded when punched — quickly rallying from one deficit at the end of the first half, halving another moments after Viewpoint’s third goal — and spent the last 20 minutes seemingly on the verge of pulling even.
“To get to this point is big,” Eagles head coach Josh Juarez said. “We, of course, want to win the whole thing, but the way they fought to the very end is a testament to those girls. ... Soccer is about those key moments, and we have a lot of talent to create those and be there in those moments. We just got unlucky with a few finishes, and they capitalized on theirs, and that’s the difference a lot of times. Especially when you get into the playoffs.
“It’s the key moments that get you moving on or not. They came out on top of those moments.”
Junior forward Vanessa Pastrana scored both of the Eagles’ goals, the first, to the lower-right corner from Paloma Silva’s goalmouth feed, providing making it 1-1 in the 40th minute, the second from an unintentionally brilliant free kick in the 62nd.
The first fractured the Patriots’ sense of inevitability. The second made Estancia believe. They dictated the game the rest of the way through stout defensive work in front of the defensive third and a direct approach aimed at isolating Pastrana and Silva up top, often through dynamic midfielder Kim Muñoz.
It produced three good chances and one great one: a sizzling Silva shot in the 67th minute, from backline leader Aisleen Avalos’ ball into space behind Viewpoint’s defensive line, that flashed just past the right post.
“It would be very easy to just feel sorry for ourselves after [going down 3-1], but we came back and tried to get the last one,” Juarez said. “We were oh-so-close so many times.”
The game belonged to Viewpoint (9-5-5), an efficient and purposeful attacking side that will face Heritage (21-8-3) in the final, through most of the first half and portions of the second. The Patriots, fueled by masterful playmaker Kaylee Foxhoven and mercurial forward Charlotte Young, were hugely superior with the ball, in precision and idea, and they looked capable of doing as they pleased.
Estancia did well to diminish its foes’ scoring chances — and nearly took the lead, twice: Pastrana just wide in the 21st, Breanna Lopez high from a gorgeous Silva pass in the 24th. Viewpoint finally broke though in the 33rd, on Foxhoven’s poke through corner-kick debris.
Estancia, which had shut out six of its previous eight opponents, found energy with that, became more efficient at closing the space the Patriots were exploiting, and it was 1-1 seven minutes later.
“Our system makes it difficult for anyone to do whatever they want, and our team works hard defensively,” Juarez said. “Our goal was to frustrate their key players and not make it so easy. ... It’s not like we’re always going to stop the best players — kind of like it’s hard to stop a Kim or a Vanessa or a Paloma — it’s just trying to make things difficult so they make the least impact as possible.”
Viewpoint might have been comfortably ahead but for impatience when its attack ran into barriers. It forced balls rather than wait for openings, playing to Estancia’s strengths and conceding command.
When things did click, the Patriots were decisive. Young deposited a rebound to restore the lead three minutes into the second half, and it was 3-1 when Mishara Briscoe finished a ball over the top in the 61st.
A minute later, the Eagles won a free kick in the semicircle above the box, and Pastrana unexpectedly hits it low to the left, snaking it past the defensive wall and into the open side of the net. Viewpoint’s wall expected a higher shot and jumped to deal with that. Pastrana’s savvy, alas, was an accident.
“I was going to go more for power, top-right corner, but I don’t even know what I did,” she said. “I kicked the ball wrong, and it went there magically.”
That magic didn’t provide enough the rest of the way, and the journey was done.
“We wanted to do it back to back,” Pastrana said. “We gave it our all, and, obviously, not the outcome we wanted, but we worked hard all season to get to this point.”
Sage Hill 2, Coachella Valley 0: The Lightning won at home on Saturday in the semifinals of the Division 4 playoffs.
Keila Fukuda scored both goals for Sage Hill (11-3-1), which advanced to the first CIF final in program history. The Lightning will play La Mirada (13-8-3) for the Division 4 title on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at El Modena High School.
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