Northwood takes sole possession of first place in league with late goal, CdM drops to second

Cory Dilbeck is trying to win his third Pacific Coast League girls’ soccer title in four years as coach at Northwood High.

Dilbeck knows that defending champion Corona del Mar is the team that typically offers the toughest competition. The programs came into Thursday’s showdown at Meadowood Park tied for first in league with three games remaining.

CdM’s chances of defending its title took a big hit thanks to some late-game heroics from Northwood freshman Lauren Arnold.

Arnold’s goal in the 79th minute assisted by Samantha Alarcon gave Northwood a 2-1 victory, stunning the Sea Kings and putting Northwood alone in first place with two games left.

The Timberwolves (11-9-3, 6-2-0 in league for 12 points) control their own destiny and can claim the outright title with wins over Irvine on Monday and Beckman on Wednesday. CdM (10-4-5, 4-2-2) is tied for second place with University (5-3-0 in league) after the Trojans beat Irvine 2-1 on Thursday.

CdM, which is winless in its last four league games after a 4-0-0 start, has games at home against Woodbridge on Monday and at Irvine on Wednesday. The Sea Kings have the goal differential tiebreaker against Northwood but not against University, coach Bryan Middleton said.

Northwood’s players celebrated wildly after the final whistle, and it was easy to understand why. The reason went a bit beyond simply taking over outright first place after the Timberwolves’ fifth straight win in league.

“This means even more to us because this is the last year that CdM is in our league,” Dilbeck said. “They’re moving on to the Sunset League, and we’re trying to send them out in second place. Have some fun with it, right?”

Northwood took the lead in the 22nd minute after a backward header in the box by McKenna Reid, coming off a free kick by Haley Fry, found the upper part of the net. The Sea Kings answered five minutes later, after senior captain Ava McKenzie was fouled from about 45 yards out near the CdM sideline.

McKenzie drilled the free kick into the box. It deflected off a defender and went to Ava’s younger sister, CdM junior Alyssa McKenzie, who stuck in the equalizer.

Alyssa, normally the Sea Kings’ center back, had subbed in after the Northwood goal. She returned Thursday at forward, after Middleton said Alyssa missed eight games with a pulled right quadriceps injury suffered in the Battle of the Bay game against rival Newport Harbor on Dec. 21.

“With it being her first game and her being maybe only about 80%, I didn’t want to risk putting her in the defense and having her have to make a full run or try to hit long balls,” Middleton said. “We were just trying to get an opportunity, exactly like how she scored her goal.”

Alyssa played about 30 minutes, exiting early in the second half after she said she felt some soreness. She quickly put on her normal bench attire of pajama bottoms, leading to one CdM parent confusedly asking her if she had even played in the game.

She watched from the bench at the end. The CdM defense, led by senior goalkeeper Shannon Duss (seven saves) and senior Julie Bartz, junior Katharine Caston, sophomore Alex Ianni and freshmen Avery Doherty and Maddie Rosen, kept it together until the late Northwood goal.

Cd M, ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division 2, also missed one of its top playmakers in sophomore midfielder Megan Chelf. Middleton said Chelf was out with a calf injury suffered Tuesday against University. Chelf said she hoped to play against Woodbridge.

The Sea Kings seem to be running out of time to get healthy for a lengthy postseason run, but the first focus remains on defending their league title.

“We know we’re not going to drop the next two games, so it really just depends on what [the Timberwolves] do,” Alyssa said. “The pressure’s on them now.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo