Flintridge Sacred Heart soccer defeats Chaminade, secures league title
LA CAÑADA — After earning a monumental victory three days earlier, the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy soccer team suffered through some flat periods Monday evening against Chaminade.
The Tologs struggled on offense during the first half of their Mission League contest, which was scoreless after the first 40 minutes.
However, five minutes into the second half, Amethyst Trang scored the only goal Flintridge Sacred Heart would need to notch a 1-0 victory, as well as sew up the Mission League championship at St. Francis High.
The Tologs (10-4-4, 5-1-2 in league), who finished up their regular season Monday, were fresh off a big 2-1 road win Friday against defending league champion Harvard-Westlake. It marked the first time in program history that Flintridge Sacred Heart had won at Harvard-Westlake.
Harvard-Westlake is 4-2-1 and even with a win Wednesday against Alemany, will finish behind Flintridge Sacred Heart.
“Honestly, it really means everything to get this title,” said Trang, a reigning All-Area selection. “As seniors for four years, we’ve all been waiting for this. I think we have all really worked hard for this and that’s why it means so much.
“Getting that win Friday really boosted our confidence, but we didn’t come in today just thinking that we were going to win. We knew this was going to be a tough game and we had to do our best.”
Against Chaminade (9-6-3, 2-3-2), the Tologs looked tentative in the early minutes. Both squads had their chances to score, but neither could break through.
“We dropped off big time from where we played Friday to this game,” said Flintridge Sacred Heart coach Mark Snashall, who was missing three key players who suffered injuries against Harvard-Westlake. “We really struggled today and you could see it. They stacked their defense with five in the back and we couldn’t break it down and we couldn’t get through.
“But when we got that goal, it really changed things. But, even after that, it was a lot of work for us to get anything going.”
The Tologs’ best chance in the first half came in the 20th minute. Madeleine Hara got the ball on the right side and sent a pass to Hillary Howard, who directed the ball to Krista Celo. Celo took a hard shot that clanked off the inside of the crossbar and squirted out.
After the scoreless first half, Flintridge Sacred Heart finally made good on a chance in the 45th minute. Celo headed the ball to Trang who dribbled in on the left side. Trang carried the ball in and took a hard shot which beat goalkeeper Cate Mackel to give the Tologs a 1-0 advantage.
“The whole objective is keep working hard. Even if we are getting shots and we’re missing, we still have to keep working until it hopefully goes in,” Trang said. “Honestly, I saw the goal and my mentality is whenever I see the goal I just shoot. But after that goal, we just couldn’t relax and take it easy because we knew they could come back and score one.”
Natalie Slim started in goal for the Tologs in the first half. She was relieved in the second half by Joshlyn Aguirre, who came up with some big saves to preserve the shutout.
Chaminade’s Maddie Klee had three hard shots off free kicks in the 63rd, 69th and 79th minutes. Aguirre was able to knock away all three attempts.
“The girls who stepped in today stepped up,” Snashall said. “With our injuries, some girls were thrown into the deep end and they really held their own. We had some freshmen who were unbelievable today.”
Twitter: @jefftsports
