SOUTHERN SECTION 4-A GIRLS’ SOCCER PLAYOFFS

In the other Division 4-A semifinal:

Simi Valley 3, Mater Dei 0--Mater Dei, which won the Division 3-A title last season, finally met its match in the 4-A playoffs as Simi Valley easily handled the Monarchs at Mater Dei.

Simi Valley (24-2-1), seeded third and champions of the Marmonte League, dominated No. 2 Mater Dei (23-4-2) by flooding the Monarchs’ end with players who got to balls quicker and were ready to pounce on second chances.

“They just put so many players forward and we never got organized defensively,” Mater Dei Coach Becki Schelhorse said. “They had girls running through all day long. We didn’t know where they were coming from. Their transition game was very good today.”

Simi Valley threatened from the beginning, narrowly missing a goal in the first 30 seconds of the game. The Pioneers, who outshot the Monarchs, 24-11, scored five minutes into the game when Brandi Freidrich slipped past a Mater Dei defender and tapped a shot that rolled across the goal mouth and into the corner of the net.

Schelhorse said it appeared that Mater Dei goalkeeper Julie Tarnay, who had 15 saves, didn’t see the shot.

Simi Valley’s other goals weren’t flukes. Senior midfielder Liz Albin scored her 17th goal of the season midway through the first half on a hard shot to the upper left-hand corner, which came on a rebound of her own shot. After Tarnay knocked a corner kick away from the goal with 10 minutes left in the half, sophomore forward Holly Bennett controlled the ball and scored her 18th goal on a shot to the right corner.