Flintridge Sacred Heart soccer pulls out late win over Glendale

Glendale — It isn’t often that two teams walk off the field with a sense of satisfaction, but that was the case Friday evening at Moyse Field.

A Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy soccer team making its debut under coach Mark Snashall dominated second-half play, but gratefully settled for a late rebound goal and a 1-0 nonleague victory over gritty host Glendale.

PHOTOS: Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy gets past Glendale, 1-0

“We have to work on our finishing, that’s for certain,” Snashall said. “It’s a good start for us and good football. [Glendale] set up well in a 4-5-1 and it’s hard to break down. We stuck with our pattern and eventually broke them down.”

The Tologs outshot the Nitros (1-1) by an 11-5 margin, which was 5-1 in the second half, but didn’t have anything to show for that advantage until the 69th minute.

That’s when Tolog Jillian Willis laced a 20-yard pass inside the 18 to streaking Sofia Saldivar, who peppered a shot that junior goalie Yulissa Macias (eight saves) dived to stop.

Macias, the team’s emergency goalie pressed into service due to injuries to starter Jasmine Villalobos and reserve Alexa Tarifa, had the shot roll out of her grasp, however, and right into the crosshairs of hard-charging Fiona Stayton.

The Tologs’ sophomore banged in a five-yard shot for the match’s lone goal as Flintridge Sacred Heart took a 1-0 lead.

“We had so many chances on goal and we could never finish it,” Willis said. “We would have shots go to the side or over. They would never go in until that.”

Stayton may have had her team’s best look prior to the goal when she chipped a pass from Jenna Farac right over the head of Macias and out of play from 10 yards in the 47th minute.

Flintridge Sacred Heart’s Lauren Savo also just missed on a couple of occasions, including in the 49th minute when the senior redirected a corner kick wide from 10 yards.

“We got kind of a lucky goal, but we had some good work before that, so we’ll take it,” Snashall said.

While the goal delivered Glendale its first loss of the season, Nitros Coach Victor Aquino was still proud of his team.

“In past seasons, this score would have been 4-0, 5-0 and they would have dominated the entire game,” Aquino said. “Today, we had some shots and we overcame some injuries and we were a lot more organized than in past seasons. I can’t be upset.”

In addition to being down to a third-string goalie, the Nitros lost two other players during the contest, with the most damaging coming in the 30th minute when junior midfielder Camila Castaneda went down with a foot injury.

Seconds before the injury, Glendale’s Rita Grigorian ripped a 30-yard shot that was just slightly high and right of goal.

Glendale’s Destiny Brandstetter also rifled two quality shots on goal, with a 16-yard shot in the 27th minute requiring a diving save from Mattie Interian (two saves).

While Flintridge Sacred Heart now heads into a long portion of nonleague play, Glendale has no such luxury.

The Nitros begin Pacific League play Tuesday at Muir.

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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com

Twitter: @campadresports