The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Santiago falls to Santa Margarita on penalty kicks in regional final
In the end, the Santiago girls soccer team did not win “the coin flip.”
Despite scoring goals late in each half to twice draw even, Santiago lost 5-3 in the decisive penalty-kick shootout Saturday night to Santa Margarita in the CIF State Southern California Division I regional championship match.
“The shootout is basically a coin flip, and it didn’t go our way,” Santiago coach Mike Fleming said. “So, we didn’t win the coin flip at the end. It’s disappointing, but we know what we did this season.”
Jordan Goldstein and Alexis Coughlin netted goals for Santiago (25-3-2 overall), which defeated Santa Margarita 2-0 last Friday to win the inaugural CIF
Southern Section Open Division championship match at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.
“Yes, they won in penalties, but in 175 minutes Santa Margarita was still unable to ‘beat’ us and on aggregate we were 4-2 over the two finals,” Fleming said.
The Sharks played from behind Saturday after Ireland Regan scored for Santa Margarita in the eighth minute, placing a shot into the lower left corner out the reach of Santiago goalkeeper Abby Turley.
Less than 10 minutes later, Turley dove to her left to make a finger-tip save and keep Santa Margarita from growing its lead.
Santiago produced a few decent scoring opportunities, but nothing got past Santa Margarita goalkeeper Peyton Trayer until just before halftime when Goldstein headed in a rebound to tie the game.
“Basically, these are the two best teams in Southern California,” Santa Margarita coach Craig Bull said. “This game could’ve gone either way, but to come here and play on their field isn’t easy.”
Sophia Hynes was credited with the goal that gave Santa Margarita the lead again just seven minutes into the second half, and the Eagles held a lead again for the next 20-plus minutes.
“I don’t think we played a ton better than when we played (Santiago) last week but the difference was we executed,” Bull said.
Santiago played with leads throughout the playoffs and had not been forced to chase a result in 2024, but the Sharks pressed and found a second equalizer in the 72nd minute when Coughlin put a composed finish on a pass from Kinsley Whitecavage.
“For ‘Lexi’ to come on and find a way to get us that goal to tie it all up put us on the front foot for the last 10 minutes and we had our moments, but we just couldn’t get that one,” Fleming said.
Both teams had scoring opportunities in the 15-minute overtime period, but neither team produced a goal, so a shootout was required to determine a winner.
Tied 1-1 in the shootout, Turley got her hands onto Santa Margarita’s second attempt but was unable to stop the shot, while Coughlin booted her kick right into the fast hands of Trayer.
On the other side the Eagles did not miss, with Skyler Regan slotting it past Turley for the fifth and match-winning kick.