Flintridge Sacred Heart Girls' Soccer Wins Lugo Tournament
Coming into this season Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy soccer coaches Frank Pace and Kathy Desmond had high expectations for the girls’ soccer program.
In an early test of those expectations last Saturday, the Tologs played undefeated host Don Lugo in the championship game of the Don Lugo Holiday Classic soccer tournament in Chino.
The Tologs defeated the Division I Conquistadors 5-4 on penalty kicks to win the Lugo Tournament, their first in regular season school history, and to improve to 5-0-1 for the season.
Sacred Heart hosted Westridge at Hahamongna Park in a nonleague yesterday (Wednesday), but no results were available at press time and will host Mayfield at home on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Earlier last Saturday, the Tologs earned a berth in the championship game with a 4-0 defeat of Wilson Hacienda Heights while Don Lugo had advanced to the finals with a 2-1 win over Villa Park High.
Sacred Heart was led by a three goal effort from University of New Mexico-bound senior Hannah Hand. Angie Torres added the fourth goal for the Tologs who out shot Wilson, 19-4.
Sacred Heart took a 1-0 lead when Hand converted a penalty kick at 14:49 after senior forward Courtney West was pulled down from behind in
the penalty area by a Don Lugo defender. They held the lead until the 61st minute when Don Lugo tied the score on a scramble off a corner kick.
Six minutes later, the Tologs recaptured the lead when West ran onto a perfect through ball from freshman Mimi Roukoz to put Sacred Heart ahead, 2-1. Don Lugo pressed the Tologs and the effort resulted in a goal at 77:33 to force the game into a penalty kick tiebreaker.
It turned into a war of nerves and composure for both teams. After the first eight players for each team successfully converted, Courtney
West’s shot was saved by the Don Lugo goalkeeper. Needing only a goal for the championship, the Don Lugo shot struck the crossbar, giving FSHA another chance.
Tologs’ sophomore Maddie Gonzales stepped up and buried her shot in the back of the net. In near darkness, Sacred Heart goalkeeper Cissy Butler deflected the Don Lugo shot, securing the tournament championship for the Tologs.
Co-Coach Frank Pace commented “For us to defeat a team of such quality on their home field was an important step for our team. Kathy and I were encouraged by a lot of the good things we saw, and Don Lugo exposed areas where we will continue to need to improve. The tournament championship at Don Lugo was a true team effort as we put 18 girls on the field during the two weekends, and each made significant contributions.”
Pasadena Poly never knew what hit it on Dec. 9 when host Sacred Heart scored an impressive 8-1 nonleague victory.
The Tologs led 2-0 in the first half, but poured it on in the second half, with a six goal outburst.
Giselle Galanto had a match-high four goals. One was unassisted, but she scored the others on assists by Roukoz, Hand and Lauren Bustos. Gonzales and Hand had one unassisted goal each. Other single goals were scored by Roukoz with an assist by Linzee Luper and Bustos.
Sacred Heart goalie Butler had six saves. The Tologs had 34 shots on goal while Poly had 18.