SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION II GIRLS’ SOCCER PLAYOFFS : El Modena Dominates Game, but Esperanza Triumphs, 1-0

El Modena Coach Tino Ray Younger stood near midfield consoling one player after another, perplexed at how his team could dominate a game and still lose.

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” he said several times.

A season during which El Modena won its first league title in girls’ soccer ended Thursday when Esperanza defeated the Vanguards, 1-0, in a Southern Section Division II quarterfinal game at El Modena.

The Aztecs (18-5-4) will meet Ventura Buena in the semifinals Tuesday.

“It’s been indicative of our youth to go into peaks and valleys,” Younger said. “And today we were in a valley.”

The second-seeded Vanguards (20-6) pressured the Aztecs’ goal, but it was Esperanza’s last line of defense that turned away each El Modena attack.

Senior fullbacks Joy Lindsay and Brooke Atwell threw aside finesse and boomed the ball each time it trickled their way.

“We’ve had trouble with teams that play kickball, all season,” Younger said.

Esperanza scored 16 minutes into the game, when Jenny Parkison muscled her way inside the penalty box and centered the ball to teammate Tina Brescini.

Brescini threw her body at the ball in traffic and got enough to get it by goalkeeper Amy Moreno. It was Brescini’s fourth goal of the playoffs.

“I think the first goal was the key,” Esperanza Coach Phyllis Scarborough said. “After the first 20 minutes of the second half, they began to press.”

However, El Modena had two golden opportunities to score in the second half.

The first came when Kaylee Whitfield’s shot hit the bottom of the crossbar and the rebound caromed too high for a charging Stephanie Esparza.

But the Vanguards’ best chance came with 10 minutes left, when an El Modena free kick got behind Aztec goalkeeper Suzanne Benet. Several players scrambled after the ball, but Esperanza cleared it safely.