Girls’ Soccer: Sage Hill settles for tie

IRVINE — After 100 minutes of action on Friday afternoon, the Sage Hill School girls’ soccer team came off the field to eat ... some well-deserved cupcakes.

The team celebrated the birthday of junior goalkeeper Sarah Lowey, who turns 17 on Saturday, with the treat.

In the Academy League, though, there aren’t very many cupcakes. The defending league champion Lightning have discovered that in the first half of league play this year.

Sage Hill dominated scoring opportunities but settled for a 1-1 tie against Crean Lutheran on Friday at the Saints’ field, failing to earn separation from Crean in the league race.

Rival St. Margaret’s (5-0 in league) remains in first place, while Sage Hill (6-4-4, 3-1-1 in league) and Crean Lutheran (7-3-2, 3-1-1) are tied for second.

But the Lightning will take positives from Friday’s effort, which senior midfielder Lauren Thunen called the best game of the season so far.

“Every single person brought it, which was important,” Thunen said. “It was the first game this season where I really felt we played to our potential. Overall, I was really happy with how it went. Soccer’s the kind of sport where you get chances, and some days they go in, some days they don’t. Big shoutout to their keeper [for playing well], but that was definitely a game we could have won.”

Sage Hill earned 11 corner kicks in the game and had possession for much of the contest, but it was Crean Lutheran which actually struck first in the 12th minute. Saints senior forward Meghan Shoemaker gave the hosts a 1-0 lead early, but the Lightning kept working.

It paid off in the 21st minute, after senior midfielder Janis Jin lofted a shot toward the upper part of the net. Crean Lutheran goalie Jackie Lari got her hands on the ball but it deflected in front of the goal, and Sage Hill senior forward Lexi Magliarditi was there to boot it in.

Magliarditi, who will sign with Duke University on Feb. 3, notched her team-best 13th goal of the season. The player with whom she was tied, Grand Canyon University-bound senior Claire Novotny, has 12 goals.

Players like Novotny, Jin and Thunen kept the pressure on St. Margaret’s in the midfield, which Sage Hill Coach Mike Hammond liked to see.

“Against St. Margaret’s [in a 2-0 loss on Jan. 8], we didn’t have that fight,” Hammond said. “Today we had the fight that we needed in the midfield. I feel we dominated the game. When you have [11] corners, that means that pretty much you’re dominating the game. We’re a little bit more dynamic up top with [Rachael] Jaffe up there ... I think the seniors are starting to step up a little bit more and starting to be the leaders that we need.”

Jaffe is typically a defender, but she indeed played forward the whole time on Friday. Hammond still had plenty of defenders, including seniors Jaclyn Gerschultz and Tiffany Taylor, juniors Julia Lowe and Madeline D’Amico, and freshmen Maya Jaffe and Karli Davis. Of the defenders, Gerschultz and Taylor were the ones who stayed in there the whole time, along with Lowey (five saves) in goal.

“We have a lot of young defenders, and they’re a little tentative right now, the freshmen,” Hammond said. “But they’re starting to get better and better each game.”

Rachael Jaffe had several chances in the second half. On Taylor’s corner early in the second half, she volleyed the ball toward the goal with the goalie out, only to have Crean Lutheran defender Grace Song clear it off the goal line. Then, in the 73rd minute, Jaffe crossed it in front to Magliarditi, who collided with Crean Lutheran’s Kaila Ebeling in the box. Both players fell down, and the Saints were able to clear the ball.

The game went to two 10-minute overtime periods, where chances were less common for Sage Hill. But the Lightning will take the point earned and prepare for a big week next week.

Sage Hill plays host to Oxford Academy on Tuesday and St. Margaret’s on Friday, both at 5 p.m. The first game against Oxford Academy was also close, a 2-1 Lightning victory in the league opener on Jan. 5.

Already five points behind St. Margaret’s, the Lightning may need to rattle off five wins in the second half of league to have a shot at earning back-to-back league titles. Thunen believes her team can do it.

“We definitely need to step it up, and I think this game we did,” she said. “We’re on a good roll, and we have St. Margaret’s next week at our home field. I think if we play like we played today and we practice hard this week, we’re going to be a different team against them.”