Early surge leads Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer to quarterfinals
LOS ANGELES — There’s a pattern that the Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer team has followed in the first two rounds of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs.
The talented Rebels have scored early in each contest and shifted to playing stellar defense.
The trend continued Tuesday for third-seeded Flintridge Prep, which got two goals in the first 10 minutes en route to a 3-0 second-round win against Culver City at Occidental College.
Flintridge Prep (21-4-2) will compete in a quarterfinal road match Friday against West Torrance or Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. The Rebels, who have won 17 straight matches, advanced to the quarterfinals for the second straight season.
Flintridge Prep got a goal from Julia Gonzalez in the second minute and Mona Cesario in the 10th minute. Heather Schaefer, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year, added a second-half goal after assisting Gonzalez.
“We know what we needed to do and that’s come out early and try to get some goals,” Schaefer said. “You learn that you have to play to your highest intensity level and try to capitalize on those early scoring chances. We’ve been able to do that throughout the regular season and now in the playoffs.”
Flintridge Prep, which won the Prep League championship and is 19-0-2 in its last 21 matches, scored a batch of early goals in its 11-0 opening-round win against Buena on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Rebels jumped on the Centaurs, who captured the Ocean League title, right away.
Gonzalez took a nifty pass from Schaefer inside the box and lined a shot by Culver City goalkeeper Cara Conway to make it 1-0.
After Conway made several impressive saves against the relentless attack of Flintridge Prep, Cesario intercepted a clearing attempt by Conway and drilled a 30-yard shot just under the crossbar to extend the lead to 2-0.
Conway finished with 13 saves, including eight in the first half.
Schaefer closed out the scoring in the 51st minute off an assist from MaKenna Dominguez.
Flintridge Prep yielded four shots on goal, all stopped by goalkeeper Lindsey Uteda. Flintridge Prep’s defensive unit of Jenna Mijares, Arielle Guzman, Yasmeen White and Caitlin Fong held Culver City in check.
“It went from 1-0 to 2-0 and then we had some more chances to score and we weren’t able to,” Flintridge Prep coach Esteban Chavez said. “We need to finish when we have the chances in future playoff games because you never know what will happen.
“We had a few mistakes out there and we’ll look to clean them up at practice. Our defense did a lot of good things with clearing the ball and communicating. It’s really not easy getting to the quarterfinals and I’m happy for our players.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
