THE PREPS : 3-A Girls’ Soccer : La Quinta Puts Best Feet Forward in 3-1 Win

The La Quinta High School girls’ soccer team defeated Villa Park, 3-1, Thursday in a first-round Southern Section Division 3-A playoff game at Villa Park.

La Quinta raised its record to 16-4-2. Villa Park, the Century League champion, finished at 10-8-2.

A change in alignment by La Quinta kept Villa Park from controlling the ball on its side of the field.

“We switched forwards,” said Bill Wilson, La Quinta coach. “We use a 4-4-2 now, so we have only two forwards--both are freshmen.”

Many teams use four forwards, three midfielders and three defenders, or sometimes two midfielders and four defenders.

“Four midfielders give the defense much more support,” Wilson said.

Villa Park converted only one of eight shots on goal. Keri Randall’s goal at 36:30 in the first half tied the score at 1-1.

La Quinta forward Stefanie Stucker rolled a shot past Villa Park goalie Barbara Concannon to give La Quinta an early lead.

With the score tied at halftime, it only took La Quinta three minutes to score in the second half.

Nicole Eisley found a seam in the defense on the left side of the goalie box to score the tie-breaking shot.

Villa Park could not answer as goalie Wendy Wilson shut down every Spartan threat. Wilson, the daughter of the coach, finished with eight saves.

When Villa Park stalled, La Quinta started rolling again. Less than 10 minutes after Eisley’s goal, forward Cheryl Jones scored on a 25-yard shot after getting ahead of the field.

“I just have a couple of clever forwards,” Wilson said of Jones and Stucker.