Agoura Girls Head for Final With a Streak of 40 Victories

What has 36 legs, 18 ponytails, 40 consecutive victories and a goalkeeper as lonely as the Maytag repairman?

Answer: The Agoura High girls’ soccer team.

The Chargers smothered visiting Kennedy of La Palma, 5-0, on Tuesday in a Southern Section 3-A Division semifinal.

And they hope that life really does begin at 40. Agoura, ranked No. 1 all season, will play Anaheim Canyon for the championship Saturday at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Agoura, has won three consecutive 2-A championships and has not lost since December, 1986, an unbeaten string of 77 matches. This season, the Chargers (25-0) have outscored the opposition, 170-6, and set a Southern Section record for goals in a season.

The Chargers assaulted three Kennedy goalkeepers with 19 shots. Agoura goalie Tricia Arledge, meanwhile, was called upon to make just one save.

Such disparity in the semifinal round?

“Actually, we were a little flat in the second half,” Agoura Coach Dave Godwin said.

Godwin’s girls flattened Kennedy (12-10-1), the third-place team from the Garden Grove League, with three first-half goals--four if you count an apparent goal that went uncredited after deflecting off the crossbar over the goal line. The official, however, failed to notice the line judge signaling a goal with her flag.

“I was thinking,” said Godwin, who protested the play frantically, “What am I going to do with my coronary arteries if that turns out to be the deciding goal?”

Godwin kept on ticking, thanks to some fancy kicking by some familiar feet.

Senior Julie Tingle, who increased her Southern Section-record career assist total to 102 with three in the match, scored the Chargers’ first goal when she booted in a rebound early in the first half.

Tingle, dribbling on a breakaway, fed junior Heidi Walters with a perfect centering pass. Walters’ shot, however, caromed off the goal post back to Tingle.

Walters followed with two left-footed goals before halftime to increase her team-high total to 29.

“I’m not left-footed,” she said. “They just came that way.”

Said Tingle, who has 43 assists this season: “I cross (pass) it and she kicks it in.”

Vanessa Martin, a senior, scored two second-half goals on assists from Tingle.