Chatsworth Gets Cornered Again by El Camino Real

The El Camino Real High girls’ soccer team defeated Chatsworth three times this season. The first two earned the Conquistadores the West Valley League title.

The third victory was worth the school’s first City Section girls’ soccer championship.

Four players scored to lead the Conquistadores to a surprising and impressive 4-0 victory over the five-time defending champion Chancellors in the championship game Saturday at UCLA.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” said Mimi Shvartz, El Camino Real’s captain who scored on a 35-yard shot with 20 minutes to play. “We just beat Chatsworth, 4-0. They were supposed to win.

“We came out here knowing we weren’t expected to win. Everyone was saying it was a fluke we beat them twice. We knew it wasn’t. We just had to prove it. I’m glad we scored four goals. We deserved not to win, 1-0. This was a 4-0 game.”

El Camino Real became only the second school to win a boys’ and girls’ City Section soccer championship in the same season. Chatsworth did it in 1991.

Chatsworth (14-6-1) gave El Camino Real (20-1-2) a lift when a Chancellor defender headed a corner kick from Maytal Shvartz into her own goal in the ninth minute.

“We knew if we scored the first goal, we had the game,” said Maytal Shvartz, Mimi’s sister. “I thought we were going to head it in. We knew the field was going to be bigger so we practiced our corner kicks this week.”

The Conquistadores, who beat Chatsworth, 1-0 and 2-1, in league play, took a 2-0 lead on another corner kick in the 55th minute.

This time El Camino Real midfielder Kori McLaughlin headed in Maytal Shvartz’s kick.

Giuliana Facio took a pass from Kandice McLaughlin, Kori’s sister, and beat goalkeeper Sydney Sterk to extend the lead to 3-0 in the 62nd minute.

The Conquistadores held the Chancellors scoreless for the first time in 10 games. El Camino Real didn’t allow a shot on goal after Jenna Fodor’s attempt in the 22nd minute was saved by Miko Penn.

“We call our defense the Goal Patrol,” said stopper Megan Zwoyer of El Camino Real, which didn’t allow a goal in the playoffs.