Capistrano Valley Reaches the Level It Craved

All season Capistrano Valley Coach Jack Peterson has said his team is on a “mission.”

Mission accomplished.

After being the preseason favorite for the past five seasons, the top-seeded Cougars finally won the Southern Section Division I girls’ soccer title, defeating third-seeded Claremont, 2-0, Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Thirty minutes after the game, Peterson was still beaming.

“This is just unbelievable,” Peterson said.

It has been a long time coming for the Cougars (25-1), whose only other title was in 1989. The four-time defending South Coast League champions have made untimely exits from the playoffs the past four years, and the seniors on the team weren’t going to let that happen again.

“These girls love each other so much,” Peterson said. “They are such a team. For them to have gone home with a tie or a loss would have been shameful.”

There was little chance of that.

The Cougars outshot the defending champion, 33-1, recording their 21st shutout of the season. The Wolfpack’s only shot came with five minutes remaining in the game.

However, the game was still scoreless at the half, despite the Cougars’ 14 first-half shots, partly because of the rain and muddy field.

“We just told each other to keep going at them,” junior forward Ashley Casas said of the team’s halftime talk.

“We knew one would finally go in,” senior forward Lindsay Greco said.

It was Casas who struck first, three minutes into the second half. Junior midfielder Kirsten Moore sped down the wing, left her defender flat-footed and slammed a shot. Claremont goalkeeper Natalie Juarez knocked it out, but the rebound went to Casas, who angled the ball just inside the far post. Just to make sure, Greco, who was marking the post, tapped it again after it crossed the line.

Greco scored one of her own, picking up her 15th goal of the season with just more than 10 minutes remaining. She got open just outside the box and blasted a shot that sailed out of Juarez’s reach.

“This feels great,” said Greco, who led the team, along with senior midfielder Megan Abbamonto, in goals. “We have been working so hard all season for this.”

Juarez did a brilliant job in goal for the Wolfpack, recording 15 hard-earned saves. Eleven of those came in the second half, when she faced 19 Cougar shots.

Her counterpart, Staci Sinkway, had only one save, a ball that went straight into her arms.

The Cougars finished their near-perfect season, giving up only eight goals and suffering only one loss, a 1-0 defeat to Aliso Niguel in their third game of the season.