Girls’ Soccer: Ocean View goes for three
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SANTA ANA — As scoring chance after scoring chance came and went Thursday night, it was easy for the Ocean View High girls’ soccer team to get a little bit antsy.
The Seahawks needed a win at Segerstrom to wrap up a share of their third straight Golden West League title, but they went into halftime tied. The game went deep into the second half, still with no score.
“Every game that we’ve played, it’s kind of been similar to this game,” Ocean View Coach Jose Sanchez said. “We have great chances, great chances, great chances, but we’re still struggling to finish.”
After graduating six senior starters last year, the Seahawks are a young team. Two underclassmen provided a boost when they needed it most.
Sophomore Analisa Chavez and freshman Brittany Lopez scored late as Ocean View won the league finale, 2-0, to earn the “three-peat” as league champion. Ocean View (10-12-1, 8-2 in league) shares the league title with Westminster, which earned a 2-1 victory over Santa Ana earlier on Thursday.
The Seahawks can go into the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs next week with some momentum, after winning their final two league games. Junior midfielder Micayla Shook, a team captain along with senior forward Kaci Montoya and senior defender Daisy Moran, said Thursday’s game was Ocean View’s best effort of the season.
“We finished off really strong,” Shook said. “This was our best game as a whole team together, and that’s what I’m most proud of. The fact that it was our third league title, even though we lost a lot of players from last year … all of the incoming freshmen and JV players have really shown themselves.”
Ocean View finally broke through late against Segerstrom (8-8-2, 4-4-2). Chavez struck in the 70th minute, taking a nice pass from the left from Iran Enriquez. She moved forward before beating the Segerstrom keeper into the upper part of the net.
“With Analisa, all season we’ve been trying to tell her to take an extra touch,” Sanchez said. “I’m glad she did that. That was a fantastic goal, and it definitely helped out for the momentum to continue throughout the game.”
Five minutes later, Lopez struck. She took a pass out of the box from Montoya and shot it near the top of the box. The ball hit off the inside of the crossbar and fell in for an insurance goal.
The Seahawks weren’t going to lose the two-goal advantage, not with the stellar play of Moran and sophomore center back Nancy Cabrera. Sophomore goalie Jasmine Rocha made four saves for Ocean View.
Ocean View was undefeated in league with four games to go, but lost back to back games at Santa Ana on Jan. 31 (2-0) and at Westminster on Feb. 2 (3-1). But the Seahawks rebounded with an 8-0 triumph against Orange on Tuesday before Thursday’s win.
“Honestly, I think [the losses were] a good wake up call, to not relax and not settle,” Montoya said. “After that, we just kept working hard.”
The CIF playoff brackets will be released Monday, and first-round games are scheduled for Thursday. Ocean View is hoping for a longer postseason run than last year, when it lost to Cathedral City in the first round in penalty kicks.
Twitter: @mjszabo
