McCarthy girls’ soccer edges Pines Charter in regionals

After playing 100 minutes of scoreless soccer and deciding the match in penalty kicks in last week’s district final, it only figured that when the Pembroke Pines Charter and Archbishop McCarthy girls’ soccer teams met again Friday night, it would be more of the same.

Fortunately for the Mavericks, who won that district championship game, they turned the trick again.

Thanks to a pair of misfires by the Jaguars during the shootout round, McCarthy managed to edge out Pines Charter 4-3 on PKs in a Region 4-5A semifinal before a large, noisy crowd at McCarthy High School.

The top-seeded Mavericks (21-1), who are ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 5A, advanced to next Tuesday’s regional final where they will host No. 2 seed Plantation American Heritage, the No. 2 ranked team in the state, at 7 p.m.

American Heritage shut out Merritt Island 2-0 in the opposite semifinal.

“We could go out and play them again tomorrow and it might just be the same thing again, a hundred minutes of soccer and PKs,” McCarthy coach Mike Sica said. “Both of these teams are so evenly matched and one is not significantly better than the other. For our girls, I just told them that great teams need to find a way to win even when they don’t play well. We played OK tonight, but not nearly what we’re capable of, and we’re going to need to step it up on Tuesday if we want to beat a team like Heritage.”

After both teams struggled last week in the penalty kick shootout (McCarthy scored only twice but won 2-1 as the Jaguars missed multiple shots), this time both teams were on target, at least for the first five shots.

But when PPC’s Alexandra Moscoso rifled one high over the crossbar, the Mavericks led 3-2 after three. Each team nailed their fourth shots before Brisa Sastre stepped up with a chance to clinch it for the Mavericks with their fifth attempt.

But Pines Charter keeper Madison Casanova made a nice save, extending the game.

Madison Martone came up for the Jaguars with a chance to extend things to a sixth frame, but her shot bounced off the crossbar, prompting a wild McCarthy celebration at midfield.

It was the fourth consecutive season that these two teams squared off in the regional semifinals with McCarthy, which made three consecutive trips to the state final (winning the title in 2020), winning the first two before falling last year.

“Honestly, this was as tough as it’s ever been against them,” said McCarthy goalkeeper Paloma Peña, a senior and University of Florida commit. “We’ve been in so many battles with this team throughout my career and this rivalry, it’s just been really tough. All of us are friends, we play club together so we knew tonight would be just like districts last week. Thankfully, we found a way to come out on top again.”