Agoura Girls Capture Record 3rd Consecutive Soccer Championship

Individually, various members of the Agoura High girls’ soccer team are known as “Holmey,” “Chaka,” “T-Bone” and “Fish.”

Collectively, they are known as the Chargers, and, also, as the champions--of the Southern Section 2-A Division for the third consecutive year.

Agoura earned the latter sobriquet by routing Temple City, 5-0, in the 2-A final match Saturday at Gahr High in Cerritos.

In victory, Agoura stretched its two-season undefeated streak to 52 games and became the first team to win a Southern Section championship outright for three consecutive years.

Mission Viejo, which won the 4-A girls’ title this season and last year, is the only other team that has come close to matching Agoura’s feat. But the Diablos shared the 4-A championship with Edison in 1986, when the teams tied, 1-1, in the final.

“We were way up for this game,” Agoura defender Jennifer “Holmey” Holmwood said. “We were so excited going into the game, we just knew we had to win it. I thought we played a great game.”

Agoura Coach Dave Godwin did, too, and he was glad to see it.

“I’m thrilled,” he said, “especially for the seniors.”

One of Agoura’s six seniors, forward Dawn “Chaka” Krenik, gave the Chargers an early jump on Temple City when she scored on a wide-open shot from 25 yards out less than one minute into the match.

Then, on an assist from Wendy Bennett nine minutes later, Krenik scored again on a head shot from 10 yards out.

“It was good that we scored early,” Krenik said, “because it usually takes a goal to get our team going. I thought it went great.

“We got pretty fired up on the bus coming over. We wanted to win it again in our senior year.”

And make no mistake, the Chargers were confident they could win their third championship in a row--especially once they scored the two early goals.

“I think when we came out and scored like that, it really pumped us up,” Agoura midfielder Amy Ward said. “We knew no one else had won three in a row and we wanted to do it.

“We know that if we play like we can, then nobody can beat us. And I’m not trying to sound cocky, but we wanted to show people that we’ve won for the third time in a row for a reason,” she said.

The Chargers (25-0-3) certainly showed Temple City goalie Renee Hooper.

“It was just too quick. They scored too fast,” said Hooper, a senior converted midfielder who was in her first season in goal for the Rams (22-3-2).

“It made me realize I had a tough team to go against,” she said. “I knew it was going to be tough, but I didn’t know how tough. They’re a good team.”

Agoura held a 3-0 lead at the half. Junior midfielder Sandy Convey scored on a header after a corner kick by teammate Julie “T-Bone” Tingle in the 37th minute.

Junior midfielder Vanessa Martin got the Chargers’ fourth goal on an assist from Krenik midway through the second half and Convey closed out the scoring with her second goal, which came on a shot from 35 yards with just two minutes remaining.

But Temple City was beaten long before the last Agoura goal. The Chargers’ strong first half left the Rams unable to recover.

“I think it had to be something of a deflator for them,” Godwin said, “but they were well-disciplined. There was no quitting with them and that’s a sign of a class program. They have nothing to hang their heads about.”

After the game, Godwin’s own head was dripping wet and sticky from a water bath out of a Gatorade bucket and a large dollop of whipped cream as topping.

There was no doubt that this third championship was going to be celebrated.

But one of Godwin’s first requests after the title was in hand was, “Don’t ask me to compare the three.”

To Godwin’s way of thinking, the Chargers, by any other nicknames, are still the 2-A champions.