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Girls’ Soccer: CdM moves closer to CIF

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The Corona del Mar High girls’ soccer team has made the CIF Southern Section playoffs in 12 of Coach Bryan Middleton’s first 13 years at the helm.

On Thursday afternoon, the Sea Kings went a long way toward making that statistic 13 of 14 years.

Freshman Alyssa McKenzie scored in the 50th minute, assisted by senior Caroline Bethel, as CdM earned a key 1-0 Pacific Coast League victory over University on senior day.

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The teams went into the game tied for third place in league, but now CdM (8-6-7, 3-2-3 in league) is alone in third over University (3-4-1) with two league games remaining. Only the top three teams in the league will qualify for the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

“It could be one of those situations where we’re tied for third with them on points, but we have the head-to-head now,” said Middleton, whose team played University to a scoreless tie in the teams’ first league meeting. “That’s huge. Yes, I would like to sneak a point or two away from [league-leading defending champion] Northwood [on Tuesday], but really we have to take care of business at [last-place] Irvine next Thursday, that last game.”

The Sea Kings placed a lot of pressure on University in the first half of Thursday’s game. Leah Givant had a shot that whistled just wide left of the goal, and her corner kick produced a header by McKenzie that University keeper Kerri Luttrell made a nice save on.

But CdM capitalized on its chance early in the second half. Bethel played the ball forward from midfield to McKenzie in the right side of the box, and she shot it back left cross-cage and in.

“We could feel it coming,” Bethel said. “We had so many chances in the first half, that we knew it was bound to come eventually in the second half. We’re very happy about it. We’ve almost secured a spot in the playoffs, which was one of our goals going into the season.”

CdM’s defense, led by senior keeper Kat Hess (three saves), stayed stout and the Sea Kings picked up the much-needed win.

Bethel and Hess were two of nine seniors honored in a pre-game ceremony, along with Maddie Binder, Ally Doherty, Skyler Gullick, Chloe Rice, Sydney Rosen, Arabella Watkins and Addy Weed.

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