HEARTBREAK FOR WOLVERINES
Soccer matches sometimes resemble homeowners trying to sell a house. The seller can go months without a nibble, then one day the right buyer steps forward. As the real estate saying goes, “It only takes one.”
And a soccer match can be scoreless right up to the bitter end. But it only takes one goal to send one team into celebration mode and the other dropping to the turf in heartache.
So second-seeded Westview High’s girls soccer team found out Thursday night. After battling third-seeded Los Alamitos in a scoreless game for 78 minutes, the visiting Griffins scored with less than two minutes remaining to beat the Wolverines 1-0 in a Division I Southern California Regional semifinal playoff match.
“That late, it’s heart-wrenching,” said Westview senior forward Athena Davis.
“It’s so sudden, it’s shocking,” said Westview head coach Peter Stogsdill, the only coach the Wolverines have known in the school’s 21-year history. “At that point, that’s a sudden death goal.”
Understandably, Westview sophomore goalie Soraya Souvanaphong was in tears after the match. Two factors made the loss so painful.
One, it ended what otherwise was a fantastic season for the Wolverines.
Westview won the San Diego Section Open Division and finished 16-3-5.
The second factor that made the loss so difficult to stomach: Souvanaphong played an incredible match. She saved seven shots, some of the diving, stretch-as-faras-you-can variety. And too many times to count she outraced Los Alamitos forwards to loose balls far out of the box.
“She made some massive saves that could easily have been goals and we’d have been down two, three to nothing in the first half,” said Davis. “She kept us in the game.”
As for the game’s lone goal, there was little Souvanaphong could do. Los Alamitos’ Viviana Zacarias gathered the ball in the middle of the field about 25 yards directly in front of the net. From there she arched a shot that barely cleared a leaping Souvanaphong and dipped just beneath the crossbar.
“I knew she was going to get off a good shot and I’m thinking, ‘What can I do to save this?’ ” said Souvanaphong. “It was a perfect shot, probably the best of her entire life. I couldn’t lift my arm high enough.
Kudos to her. It was a nice shot.”
Los Alamitos (20-7-5) dominated play most of the match, getting off 14 shots to Westview’s nine. The Wolverines had two excellent chances to score in the first half. Los Alamitos freshman goalie Avarie Gonzalez came out far from box to make one save. The ball caromed right and a Westview rebound sailed over the net.
It was a bitter ending for Westview seniors Rachel Handy, Kate Sealy, Elly Van Den Einde and Davis. The foursome closed out their careers after playing four years on the varsity.
The quartet won two section titles and one state championship.
“It’s hard to know it was our last game,” said Souvanaphong. “We had one heck of a season. I’m going to miss a lot of the older players. We had one heck of a run.”