PV edges Torrance, advances to Division 1 semifinals
TORRANCE » After nearly 80 minutes of missed halfchances, the Palos Verdes girls soccer team finally had the opportunity to break through on the scoreboard against Torrance in Wednesday's CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal.
Minutes before the end of regulation, PV was awarded a penalty kick after a Torrance defender was ruled to have committed a hand-ball violation.
The only question was who would take the kick.
“We've only had two or three (penalty kicks) this year,” PV coach Joe Flanagan said. “I didn't know who would take it.”
Up stepped Lane Flanagan, Joe's daughter. The sophomore successfully converted the spot kick, leading PV (18-3-1) to a 1-0 lead and eventual win by the same score and a spot in Saturday's semifinals.
Top-seeded Palos Verdes will be on the road against JSerra with a trip to the finals on the line.
“A bunch of my teammates looked at me and said step up and do it,”
Lane Flanagan said. “We practice them in practice. Right when I stepped up,
I thought, oh my gosh this is real. I was definitely nervous.”
The penalty kick was the first of the year for Lane Flanagan.
“She stepped up and took it, more power to her,” Joe Flanagan said.
The teams met back in December and it ended in a 2-2 draw. This time around neither team was able to control the game offensively.
“It was one of those games where it wasn't a lot of chances,” Joe Flanagan said. “Wasn't a lot of clean chances. It was going to be whoever was going to take that moment and score that game-winner.”
Early in the second half, Gemma Pappas got around Torrance goalkeeper Vanessa Imoh, but her shot on goal was cleared off the line by Torrance defender Jennah Black.
Finlee Mills lined up a free kick later and fired it just over the bar.
Torrance's best chance came on a free kick by Kennedy Turner from 35 yards that hit the crossbar.
“It was a tough game,” Torrance coach Jonathan Torres said. “PV had moments where they had a lot of control, they played really good soccer. It really could have gone either way. Today, they deserved to win it, they scored their chance and we didn't score any.”
The penalty kick goal was just the second goal that Torrance had allowed in the last six games. Torrance was again without Kaya Herndon, who suffered a leg injury in the final game of the regular season
“It was tough because we're changing shape, kind of doing things you're not familiar with, but again, not an excuse,” Torres said. “We have good soccer players, they adapted, they did very well against Bishop Amat and Temecula Valley, I wouldn't say it affected us too much, but you would like to have a leader like that on the field.