Tigers top Desert Mirage tourney
THERMAL — The Imperial High girls’ soccer team kicked off the 20162017 season by participating in the Desert Mirage Tournament here last week.
The Tigers opened the year and the tourney taking on Indio on Thursday and playing to a 1-1 draw with Jewel McLaughlin scoring the Tigers’ lone goal.
Imperial returned to action on Friday and took on Twentynine Palms, recording a solid 4-1 victory.
McLaughlin again delivered for her team against Twentynine Palms, this time scoring two goals, with Yisel Garcia adding the third and fourth scores.
The results pushed the Tigers into Saturday morning’s semifinal against Desert Hot Springs.
The teams played to a 0-0 draw at the end of regulation, which sent the game into two five-minute, sudden-death periods.
The game remained tied 0-0, forcing a penalty shootout to decide the game.
The shootout favored the local squad 4-2 pushing the Tigers into the championship game against Indio.
In the shootout, senior goalkeeper Priscilla Silva helped her team advance to the final after she recorded two saves, while Brianna Benedict, Ashley Lopez, Caroline Plunkett and Leslie Ruiz recorded the goals.
The Rajahs and the Tigers then went into the final with identical tournament records of 2-0-1.
While the teams’ first meeting ended in a 1-1 draw, the championship game was decided in regular time with the Tigers winning 2-0 to claim the first-place trophy.
Scoring goals in the championship game were Plunkett and senior Alexis Sanchez.
Goalkeeper Silva again helped the team in the final after she saved a penalty kick in the first half and holding on for the remainder of the game to help record the shutout victory.
Imperial returns to action at 4 p.m. Wednesday when they travel to Pine Valley to take on Mt. Empire.