Newport Harbor girls’ soccer advances to first CIF semifinal after shootout win
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ORANGE — Newport Harbor’s girls gave the defensive performance of their lives Wednesday night, then relied on their penalty-kick expertise to join the Sailors’ boys in the CIF Southern Section semifinals, qualifing them for the Southern California Regional tournament and setting them up a doubleheader this weekend against No. 1 seeds.
Aliyah Chappell made two saves and Skylie Cid put away the decisive PK as Harbor escaped the Division 1 showdown at Orange Lutheran with a 4-2 shootout triumph following 100 scoreless minutes of nearly constant barrage.
Maddie Michel anchored a resilient back three, Cid and Sadie Taketa expertly tracked runners out of midfield and Chappell made 14 saves — not counting the stops in the tiebreaker — as the Lancers struggled to turn its territorial advantage into something concrete.
“It was a challenging game. We were ready for it,” said ninth-year head coach Justin Schroeder, who has Newport Harbor in what is believed to be its first final four after reaching the Division 1 quarterfinals in 2019, 2022 and last season. “We didn’t come into this thinking it was going to be anything other than what it ended up being.
“Defensively, we’ve been really stout, especially as of late. Going through Sunset League, you have to play really, really good defense or people make you pay. So we were ready for it.”
The Sailors (16-5-4) face top-seeded Westlake (15-2-1) in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Davidson Field, the winner taking on Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (17-4-3) or Roosevelt (16-4-8) in the end-of-month final. Harbor’s boys (15-3-2) meet No. 1 Downey (15-4-6), a Division 2 game, in the 5 p.m. opener.
“Probably after our first five games, I don’t know if I would have said this team was going to be going to the Division 1 semifinals,” said Schroeder, who graduated 17 seniors last year and returned just two significant front-seven players. “But our last month and a half, we’ve really turned it on.
“It feels really good, because once you get to the semifinals, it’s really about who’s going to want to be in the finals more. And I think these girls really want it.”
Orange Lutheran (5-3-8), the only Trinity League team not in the Open Division bracket, won the midfield battle decisively, particularly in the second half, and constantly played in its attacking third, building huge advantages in shots (26-6), shots on frame (16-2) and corner kicks (9-2). The Lancers created 19 reasonable chances, but only three of them — two at the end of overtime — were how-do-you-miss variety.
“[Orange Lutheran] anticipates really well,” Schroeder said. “They’ve got a real good nose for the ball, a lot of high-level players that can see the play develop before it happens, and they did a really good job of getting to things before we could, bodying us off of the ball at times, not letting us turn, not letting us go forward. It was a challenge.”
It required a full-team effort from Newport Harbor. The last line of defense — Michel, Leah Showalter and Caroline Harner — was pivotal, repeatedly closing space, nicking away balls, clearing the box and feeding Mia Knox for occasional forays forward. OLu goalkeeper Amelia Gonzalez had to make just one save, in overtime, on speedy left winger Abigail Van Exel’s hard, hopeful near-post blast.
The Sailors were comfortable once the game reached overtime, more so when penalties arrived. They’d played past 80 minutes three times this season and gone through a penalty-kick shootout, falling to Edison in the Sunset League tournament on Feb. 2.
“Experience is everything,” Chappell said. “We’ve gone to double overtime many, many, many times. I’ve played double overtime many times. Going to PKs, we’ve done it before. Everything’s happened before.”
Chappell had Newport Harbor on top from the start of the shootout. She parried Macey Tuiolosega’s mid-range attempt to the left, freshman forward Cassie Jacoby went to the right to take the advantage, and Showalter and Knox’s conversions kept the edge. Chappell’s fourth-round stop on Ava Harrison put the Sailors on the verge.
“I knew that we were going to go to PKs as soon as it hit the two-minute mark [in the second overtime],” Chappell said. “I started preparing myself then and making sure that I was confident. I just had to make sure to stay locked in to what I knew I was going to go do, look at [the shooters’] feet, and then be confident in my guess. And whichever way I guess, just fully go all out for it. It paid off.”
Cid, the daughter of Harbor boys coach Ignacio Cid, was a reluctant heroine.
“I was very nervous,” she said. “I told my coach I don’t want to take one, but he was, like, ‘You’re going fourth.’ So I was like, all right, and I just took a deep breath and, looked at the keeper and then shot it.”
The right side was wide open, and Cid rolled it in.
“Absolutely incredible,” Chappell said. “Ever since we started this, I wanted to make history. ... Everything is happening amazing right now. We’ve just got to finish it out.”
Ocean View 4, Adelanto 2: The Seahawks reached the Division 6 semifinals, rallying from a second-half deficit to beat visiting Adelanto behind Devynn Foster’s hat trick. The Seahawks (12-6-3) head Saturday to the Antelope Valley to face Palmdale Aerospace Academy (11-1-1).
Foster provided Ocean View a first-half lead, then tallied twice in the second half for a 3-2 advantage after two Samantha Aguilar goals sent Adelanto (14-7-2) ahead after the break. Charlotte Johnson’s late penalty kick secured the victory.
