Goalie’s Untimely Slip Lets Pacifica Score Winning Goal

Top-seeded Pacifica got a little bit of luck Tuesday when a goalkeeper’s slip led to a 1-0 victory over Temecula Chaparral in the second round of the Southern Section Division III girls’ soccer playoffs.

Chaparral defender Kim Couch knocked the ball back to goalkeeper Autumn Stowell, but Stowell fell as she came out of the goal and Pacifica’s Megan McGregor, who never gave up on the ball, beat Couch to the ball and popped it into the net eight minutes into the second half.

“You have to hope to have good fortune in these games,” Pacifica Coach Matt Etchison said. “When you get into the playoffs it takes hard work, effort and a sometimes a little luck.”

McGregor’s goal was her eighth this season and one of only seven shots taken by the Mariners. Chaparral got off 15, three that went off the crossbar.

Chaparral (22-5-2) opened the game with a bang. Two minutes in the Pumas’ Ashlee Stephens slammed a shot that was blocked by Amy Burcham. Alyson Spencer knocked the deflection off the crossbar, she got the rebound, which she headed off the crossbar again.

The shooting continued as Chaparral won all the balls in the air and kept control of the offensive end of the field.

The Mariners were lucky to close out the half with a scoreless tie.

“They pressured us hard and forced us into mistakes. But we made some adjustments at halftime,” Etchison said.

Those changes included more pressure on Stephens, who took five of her six shots in the first half. Defenders Burcham, Molly Jewett and Kim Wahlsrom, stepped up their intensity and held Chaparral to five second-half shots. Four of the Pumas shots were brought down by Mariner goalkeeper Krista Houston, including a diving save to her left and two close-range rebound shots from Tiffany Shelton, that Houston hauled in.

The Mariners will play Thursday at West Covina South Hills in the quarterfinals.