Westridge Overwhelms Canyon, 5-2

Rain, rain, stay all day, make their offense start to fray.

That was the hope of the Canyon High girls’ soccer team Tuesday as it prepared to face powerful Westridge and standout strikers Jamie Lang and Maya Clark in a Southern Section Division III second-round playoff game at Canyon High.

Request denied. The Tigers routed Canyon, 5-2, with Lang and Clark each scoring twice on a waterlogged field and Celina DeLeon adding a goal and three assists.

“We knew they had speed and skill up front and that’s why we were hoping the field would slow them down,” Canyon Coach Michele Braceros said of the Tigers (20-6-1). “We knew what we were up against and that it was going to take a near-perfect game for us to put them away.”

Instead it was the Cowboys (8-12-4) who were down, 2-0, and out of the picture only 15 minutes into the game.

Lang slipped a close-range shot past unsteady Canyon goalkeeper Tealena Baltad in the 11th minute and Clark stripped a Cowboys’ defender of the ball and outraced another to the goal before chipping a shot over the charging Baltad in the 15th minute.

Gentry Green pulled Canyon to within 2-1 in the 20th minute, when her 15-yard shot skidded under Westridge goalkeeper Laura Brereton.

But in the 23rd minute DeLeon sent a crossing pass under a sprawling Baltad that Clark tipped in at the right post for her 27th goal and a 3-1 halftime lead for Westridge.

“[Canyon’s] defense isn’t as quick as our attack and with them playing flat in the back we knew we could get the ball behind their defense and take advantage of our speed,” said Westridge co-Coach Brian Williams, who scouted Canyon’s 3-1 opening round victory Saturday over Quartz Hill.

Canyon’s defense maintained respectability thanks to junior sweeper Karen Hammonds. But the Cowboys floundered badly for much of the game, allowing Tiger players to get open in front of the goal or burst free down the wing.

Within a four-minute span early in the second half, Lang scored her 28th goal and DeLeon added her 14th to give the Tigers a 5-1 lead.

Canyon’s Hammonds closed the scoring by drilling a 25-yard direct kick under the crossbar.