PLAYOFF PROFILES : Foes Are Left Post Marked

If the term power forward were widely used in soccer, Harvard-Westlake’s Jessica Post would be the prototype.

Intense, driven and the Mission League’s best player, Post has 24 goals and 14 assists will lead the Wolverines (22-4-1) into a Southern Section Division II quarterfinal later this week.

League champion Harvard-Westlake, top-ranked in the division, will play the winner of today’s Buena-Mira Costa second-round game, weather permitting.

Skilled and a bit belligerent, Post, who will play next fall at Dartmouth, has waltzed past or run over defenders depending on the situation.

“It’s pretty much my nature to go right at people,” Post said. “I like to take people one on one.”

In her team’s first meeting this season with league rival Chaminade, Post cracked heads with the Eagle defender assigned to shadow her. Post was taken to the emergency room suffering from a black eye and a bruised bone in her face.

In the team’s next meeting, Chaminade Coach Mike Evans tried to gain a psychological edge on Post by guarding her with the same player. Instead, the Eagle defender asked to leave the game midway through the first half.

“I didn’t threaten her,” Post said with a laugh. “I just warned her I was coming at her and she thoroughly freaked out.”

Evans has watched Post spook the Mission League for the last four years and holds her in high regard.

“She’s the best forward we saw all season,” Evans said. Harvard-Westlake Coach Ned Smith deployed Post mainly as a midfielder her first three seasons but has watched her become comfortable at forward.

“This year we’ve got a team that can get her the ball up front and she’s been close to unstoppable,” Smith said. “She’s a real force and she comes up with big, big goals.”