Chatsworth Wins 11th City Title

This is going to sound like a broken record, but the Chatsworth High girls’ soccer team won the City title.

The top-seeded Chancellors defeated San Pedro, 4-2, on Saturday to win their fifth consecutive City Section championship at East L.A. College in Monterey Park.

Chatsworth (17-3-1) was rarely tested as the Chancellors captured their 11th title in 13 years, defeating the Pirates (17-2-3) for the fifth time in the last six City finals.

“I thought it was going to be much better competition. We weren’t 4-2 better than them,” midfielder Shannon DeVos said. “I thought they were a lot better and they proved that on the field, but we scored and they didn’t.”

Chatsworth combined aggressive play with one-touch soccer to keep the Pirates from developing an offensive rhythm. The Chancellors outshot San Pedro, 19-9, led 3-0 at halftime, and only gave up goals on penalty kicks.

“We played our game and did the things we wanted to do,” said assistant Trevor Schmidt of Chatsworth, which scored 126 goals this season. “We were successful doing it. They were a good team and they gave us a good game. We were just fortunate to score this many goals.”

The Chancellors defeated San Pedro, 1-0, in last season’s final.

DeVos gave the Chancellors a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute. With her back to the goal, DeVos received a pass from Leila Pate, turned toward the goal and hit an off-balanced shot from 10 yards that looped over San Pedro goalkeeper Ester Regalado.

“The defender was grabbing my shirt. I thought she was trying to pull my clothes off and I knew I had to turn right away to shoot,” DeVos said. “I couldn’t even see where the ball was because I was facing the wrong direction. I just heard people scream and I knew it went in.”

The Chancellors added two more goals in the waning moments of the first half. Pate one-touched a corner kick from Jenna Fodor past Regalado and Amanda Minassian put in a rebound off a Pate shot.

Pate scored in the 75th minute on direct kick from the top of the 18-yard box to make it 4-1. Pate finished the season with a team-high 36 goals.

San Pedro’s high-powered offense, which averaged nearly 10 goals a game was shut down by Chatsworth’s defense. The Pirates had outscored opponents, 130-14, this season and didn’t allow a goal in league play.

Both of the San Pedro goals were scored by forward Katherine Bjazevich off penalty kicks that beat Chancellor goalkeeper Tina Essington to her right. Two goals is the most San Pedro has scored against Chatsworth in more than five years.

“We were worried,” Chatsworth defender Tonya Schmidt said. “We heard a lot about San Pedro and how quick their forwards were and we were cautious. Everybody played 100 percent today and that’s all that counts.”

Poly 1, Reseda 0--No. 16-seeded Poly became the lowest seed to win a City title when the Parrots upset Reseda, 1-0, in the City Invitational.

Sixth-seeded Reseda (9-5-2) dominated the first half, holding Poly (8-8-4) without a shot, but Poly forward Leticia Huerta scored the game’s lone goal in the 70th minute.

Huerta took a pass from Lizette Garcia, settled the ball and hit a shot from the top of the 18-yard box that hit the right post and caromed into the goal.