Johnson, Mills key USC women’s soccer’s NCAA title victory

Once upon a time phenomenal contributors to the area’s greatest girls’ soccer season of all-time, Katie Johnson and Kayla Mills were all-everything standouts when Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy won the CIF Southern Section Division I championship in 2011.

On Sunday evening, Mills and Johnson were once more crucial authors for another championship chapter in their school’s history.

Only this time it was with USC and NCAA Division I, as Johnson scored the game-winner and the game-clincher to propel the Lady Trojans to an NCAA women’s soccer championship with a 3-1 win over top-ranked West Virginia in the College Cup finale at Avaya Stadium in San Jose on Sunday.

“I’m so excited. … It was a really exciting moment,” said Johnson in an ESPNU postgame interview. “I’m getting emotional, but I’m so proud of this team.”

Following the final game of her career, Johnson, a redshirt senior forward, was named the 2016 College Cup Most Outstanding Player. Mills, a senior defender, also turned in an outstanding match and was named to the NCAA Women’s College Cup All-Tournament Team.

Johnson, a 2012 Flintridge Sacred Heart graduate, and Mills, a 2013 FSHA alumna, were All-Area, All-Mission League and All-CIF selections in 2011 when Flintridge Sacred Heart won the area’s first and only CIF Southern Section Division I girls’ soccer title.

On Sunday, Johnson broke a 1-1 tie with the game-winner in the 75^th minute and added another score 12 minutes later to cap a brilliant postseason for the Trojans senior and put the finishing touches on second-seeded USC’s (19-4-2) second College Cup, with the first coming in 2007.

Mills, lauded as one of the nation’s top defenders and a second-team National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America All-American on Friday, was part of a USC defensive effort that bent, but broke just once despite the Mountaineers (23-2-2) outshooting the Trojans, 21-8, and owning a 9-1 advantage in cornerkicks.

Johnson, who had tallied the winning goal in Friday’s 1-0 semifinal triumph over Georgetown, took a perfect cross from Leah Pruitt and rolled a shot right of goalkeeper Rylee Foster for a 2-1 lead in the 75^th minute.

“The second goal we scored, Leah did all the hustle for it,” Johnson said, “I just put myself in a good position to finish it.”

Twelve minutes later, Johnson converted a Nicole Molen assist into an insurmountable 3-1 lead when she caught Foster off-line and a bit too far out of the box and looped a shot from roughly 30 yards over her head and off Foster’s outstretched hand.

“Honestly, it was a counter and I just got a touch and half-chance finished it,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s final tally also signified the first time all season in which the Mountaineers allowed three goals in a game and wrapped up their first loss since a 1-0 defeat against Georgetown on Sept. 18, which preceeded a 17-match unbeaten streak.

It took but 82 seconds for USC to take a lead, as a corner kick led to a header assist from Savannah Levin off a header goal by Morgan Andrews.

West Virginia’s Ashley Lawrence evened the match in the 66^th minute.

The match’s result also boasted some incredible historical statistics, as it was the 126^th national team title for USC, while West Virginia came up short in vying for a team title in any sport other than co-ed rifle, of which it’s shot down 18. USC also joined the slim ranks of programs with multiple College Cups, as Notre Dame and Portland have three each and North Carolina women’s soccer, one of college’s greatest past dynasties, has 21.

On Sunday, Mills started and played all 90 minutes, while Johnson came off the bench, scoring two goals on three shots in 52 minutes.

Mills, a starter in 25 matches this season, earned All-Pacific 12 Conference first-team honors for the second straight season and tallied three assists. She also converted a penalty kick in USC’s dramatic 0-0 (4-3) triumph over Texas A&M on Nov. 18 in the second round of the playoffs. She was vital in a USC defensive effort that relinquished just two goals in six playoff matches.

Johnson, an all-conference honorable mention, played in 25 matches with 20 starts and tied for the team-high with 10 goals to go along with three assists. Johnson scored three goals in the College Cup (final four).

She wrapped up Sunday with a headset on doing an onfield interview donning a brand-new 2016 NCAA championships T-shirt before two teammates ran onto the scene and doused her with water bottles.

“Oh no,” Johnson smiled. “I wanted to wear this shirt all week.”