Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer punches ticket to quarterfinals
Through the first two matches of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs, the Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer team has been dominant on both sides of the ball.
Flintridge Prep, which won the Prep League championship outright after splitting it last season, was looking to move a round further than it had last year against the same foe that ended its season previously.
Flintridge Prep received two goals from Helen Schaefer and one apiece from Jenna Mijares and Julia Gonzalez on Tuesday to record a 4-0 second-round road victory against San Marcos a season after the same team ended the Rebels’ year.
“San Marcos has a pretty good team with some very good players,” said Flintridge Prep Coach Esteban Chavez, whose Rebels lost, 3-2, in last season’s second round. “We have a lot of grit on our defense and we’ve been playing very well.
“We found some ways to get behind their defense to score and our defense handled themselves well.”
Flintridge Prep (21-3-3) will meet Oak Hills (24-3-2) in a quarterfinal home match Friday at a time to be determined. San Marcos, which took the Channel League championship, finished 11-4-4. Oak Hills picked up a 3-2 win against fourth-seeded Santa Monica on Tuesday.
The Rebels, who received four saves from goalkeeper Lindsey Uteda, advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time 2011.
Flintridge Prep, which began the postseason with a 5-0 win against Paramount, got first-half goals from and Schaefer and Mijares. Schaefer made it 1-0 in the 10th minute and Mijares scored in the 31st minute to extend the lead to 2-0.
Gonzalez, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year, scored to give the Rebels a 3-0 lead in the 56th minute. Schaefer closed out the scoring in the 68th minute.
The Rebels won their seventh consecutive match, all via shutout, and have outscored their opponents, 43-0. They last surrendered a goal in a 2-0 league defeat against rival Pasadena Poly.
“After that game, I told our players that they need to be accountable,” Chavez said of the Poly game. “Since then, they’ve been playing incredibly well. It’s big for our team to get this far.”
