Girls’ soccer: Coutin powering Hart to unforseen heights

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It must be great having someone like Sarina Coutin on your side. Playing in her 108th consecutive varsity game, Coutin scored her 104th career goal to help lift Hart to a 2-0 Division II second round victory over Golden League champions Quartz Hill on Wednesday.

Coutin has been the lifeforce for the Indians, who really haven’t missed a beat since Foothill League play started. Her instinctual leadership ability coupled with her incredible goal-scoring knack (she has 26 goals this season) makes the Cal State Bakersfield-bound sniper one of the region’s premiere players.

And to think -- I personally felt the Indians wouldn’t amount to much after Meghan Dean broke her leg. I guess that shows how much I know.

But here’s what I do know -- thanks to Laguna Hills’ defeat over second-seeded Saugus on penalty kicks on Tuesday, Hart is the only team left from the Foothill League.

In addition, playing at Agoura in the quarterfinals on Friday isn’t going to be easy. The Chargers beat top-seeded Yucaipa on Tuesday and may be the most talented team in the region behind Thousand Oaks (and I though Harvard-Westlake was better until I saw it lost, 5-0, to Los Alamitos).

-- Austin Knoblauch