Marina Defeats El Toro in Unconventional Battle

In a game where both coaches used unconventional strategy, Marina defeated El Toro, 7-6, Saturday at Golden West College.

The Vikings (20-8), unseeded and the defending division champions, will play third-seeded Villa Park Tuesday at a site to be determined by coin flip.

Marina Coach Dave Carlson, anticipating a tough game, decided to use leading scorer Cara Chlebicki in goal to throw off El Toro (16-11). She played goalie for just the first quarter, which ended, 2-2, but Carlson said it allowed him to play a drop defense, a strategy in which defenders pack the front of the goal.

“We saw them on film and they looked confused when a team ran a drop on them,” Carlson said. “We wanted Cara in the goal because we get a lot of counterattacks out of the drop and she makes the perfect pass on the counter. We were trying to score on the counter.”

Marina took a 7-5 lead when Marrisa Nelson picked up a rebound from a Kendra Shanley miss and fired it past El Toro goalie Tammy Holtzclaw with 56 seconds left to play.

That’s when El Toro Coach Don Stoll reached into his bag of tricks.

Marina got the ball with 40 seconds left on a steal by Shanley. Chlebicki brought the ball up the left side when the entire El Toro bench, Stoll included, stood up and began screaming “white ball, white ball.”

Chlebicki, not knowing what was going on, relinquished possession to El Toro, which was wearing white caps, and Lindy Gill scored with 18 seconds left to play to pull the Chargers to within a goal.

Marina ran out the clock to end the game.

“I told the girls that we were going to have to play twice as well because we were going to be out-coached,” Carlson said. “Don Stoll is a genius. I’ve never seen that exact play.”