Oades Shines as a Shooting Star

Mary Oades sat impatiently in her parents’ West Hills home last Thursday, waiting for her brother Don to return from his City Section semifinal soccer match at Fremont.

Mary, a forward on the Chatsworth High girls’ team, already was primed for the Chancellors’ Saturday match against San Pedro for the girls’ City championship. But when Don, a senior, finally arrived and informed his younger sister of his team’s 3-2 overtime victory, well, that pushed Mary over the edge.

“That got me 10 times more hyped up,” she said.

Thus inspired, Oades, a sophomore, scored all of Chatsworth’s goals in a 6-1 victory over San Pedro at Birmingham High that gave the Chancellors their third consecutive City title. And, for the record, Don’s team beat Bell, 1-0, in the boys’ final later that day.

Oades was a catalyst in Chatsworth’s attack all season, but she has no records to prove it. Chatsworth co-Coach Steve Berk, who prefers to promote team goals, keeps no individual statistics. Still, Oades has put her name in the City record book: Her six goals are a single-match playoff high.

Oades also excelled in two key regular-season matches--both against El Camino Real--in helping Chatsworth to a 17-0 record. In the teams’ first meeting, Oades scored a pair of goals to lead a 3-0 win, then, in a rematch two weeks later, she scored twice in a 3-1 victory.

“We’ve only had a couple of tough games all year and she would really come through,” Berk said. “If she sees a need where she has to have a lot of intensity, that’s how she’ll play.”

Oades’ six-shooter spoke with intensity Saturday.

Chatsworth 1, San Pedro 0: Fourteen minutes into the first half, Heather Gorman lofted a corner kick to the front of the San Pedro goal and Oades headed the ball in from five yards.

Chatsworth 2, San Pedro 0: Five minutes later, Oades banged home a corner kick from Kris Bassler with her shin.

Chatsworth 3, San Pedro 0: A miscue by San Pedro goalkeeper Elisa De La Pena led to Oades’ third score. Gorman put up a slant pass from 25 yards and De La Pena made the stop, only to fumble the ball at the feet of Oades, who then drilled it into the net at the 32-minute mark.

Chatsworth 4, San Pedro 0: With four minutes left in the half, Oades knifed through the San Pedro defense to score an unassisted goal.

Chatsworth 5, San Pedro 0: Seven minutes into the second half, Oades slipped past three Pirate fullbacks and met De La Pena one-on-one. De La Pena lunged at the ball, but Oades dribbled around the grounded goalkeeper and tapped the ball into the lower-right corner of the open goal.

Chatsworth 6, San Pedro 0: Oades concluded her double-hat trick performance a minute later, sweeping a kick toward the lower-left corner of the goal from seven yards. De La Pena dived to her right but the ball bounced over her head and into the net.

“This game tops it all,” said Oades, who called the match her finest. But how would the match be recorded for posterity?

“We were making little jokes as to what the newspapers would say,” Bassler said. “We thought the headline would say, ‘Mary Oades Beats San Pedro,’ and underneath, in little print, it would say, ‘With a Little Help From Chatsworth.’ ”