First state playoff win, redemption earned by Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer

March 7, 2017 7:17 PM PT

There was a determination on the part of the Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer team to not be defined by the squad’s biggest loss of the season.

So, the Rebels entered Tuesday afternoon’s first round of the CIF Southern California Regional Division III playoffs looking for redemption and advancement.

No. 5 seed Flintridge Prep found both in a 2-1 victory at No. 4 Tulare Mission Oak that secured the Rebels the program’s first-ever CIF State postseason victory.

“The big question for us was, ‘How were we going to comeback?’” Flintridge Prep Coach Esteban Chavez said. “We got beat up last time and today we ran into a team with a very good player. I wanted to see how we’d respond and we did great, especially goalie Lindsey Uteda.”

Prior to Tuesday, the last time the Rebels saw action came in a 5-2 loss to eventual Southern Section Division III champion South Torrance in the CIF Southern Section semifinals in La Cañada Flintridge on Feb. 28.

Tuesday’s victory will send the Rebels (23-4-3) into the crosshairs of No. 1 South Torrance (20-1-2) as the squads will meet on Thursday in the semifinals at 4 p.m.

Before then, however, Flintridge Prep had a 340-mile roundtrip and CIF Central Section Division III champion Mission Oak (23-3-1) to deal with.

Rebels sophomore striker Jenna Mijares turned in a big effort as she assisted Julia Gonzalez with a goal in the 10th minute to give the Rebels a 1-0 advantage.

Mission Oak pulled even in the 31st minute thanks to a goal from Angelica Cervantes as the first half ended in a tie at 1.

The deadlock was short-lived, though, in the second half as Helen Schaefer converted the match-winning goal on an assist from Mijares in the 41st minute as Flintridge Prep went ahead, 2-1.

Though the Rebels took the lead, they needed and received a clutch effort from Uteda, who finished with 10 saves.

Uteda denied a penalty kick in the 51st minute when she dove to her left for a save. Uteda also had a big save of a header off a corner kick in the 68th minute.

“It means a lot to win our first state playoff game,” Chavez said. “...We’re in really tough competition and we’ve been in Division III for the last several years.

“I don’t think we needed to show anything or prove anything to anyone else because we’re a competitive team. I’m just really happy how the girls responded and it’s huge to go to the semifinals.”