This post was originally published on this site
Foothill players celebrate after Saturday’s CIF semifinal playoff win over Portola. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Foothill and Portola girls soccer teams were each determined to advance to the CIF finals for the first time.
But it was Foothill that was able to celebrate a trip to the championship after pulling out a 4-3 come-from-behind overtime victory over the Bulldogs Saturday night in the CIF Division 3 semifinals at Portola.
To see additional photos, click on the first photo:
“,”load_all”:false,”error_template”:”
{{ERROR}}
“,”inner_caption”:true,”caption_position”:”over”,”thumbs_position”:”bottom”,”arrow_position”:”inside”,”toolbar”:false,”infobar”:true,”show_smallbtn”:true,”idle_time”:false,”click_content”:false,”click_slide”:false,”click_outside”:false,”animation_duration”:false,”transition_duration”:false,”small_btn_template”:”“}” data-parsed-attrs=”{“id”:”186967″,”cache”:true}”>
Foothill (12-7-4) advances to face Moore League champion Long Beach Poly (14-3-1) next weekend at a site and day to be announced Monday.
Saturday’s match-up was well played and hard-fought by both teams and featured back and forth scoring.
Portola led 2-1 at halftime and 3-2 late in the match before Foothill tied it on a goal by Vanessa Paredes with with less than two minutes left in regulation to send the contest into overtime.
Then, the Knights Lili Reid scored with about 30 seconds left in the first sudden death overtime to send Foothill to the finals.
“One of my teammates was driving down and they shot it, it came off and it kind of bounced around, I was kind of toward the end-line and I thought why not just try and go for the goal, it’s the end of overtime, so I hit it and it went over the keeper and into the goal,” Reid said of the game-winner.
“It’s so cool to be the first team to get to do this ever. But it’s even cooler that I was the one who got to finish the final goal and really seal it off, I’m just proud of my team, none of us gave up and that’s why we’re here and we’re in the finals.”
Long-time coach Foothill Coach Steve Patterson, who has led the program for 25 years, showed his pride in the team, which was making its second trip into the semifinals.
“It’s about having patience with the game and sticking to our game plan,” Patterson said. “It pays dividends to just keep playing and it will come, the opportunities and we created those today, and you saw that in the second half.”
Patterson then became emotional when talking about the Knights first trip to the CIF finals.
“It means everything; these kids deserve this, I’ve never seen a team work as hard as this team has, to come back and fight their way back and to get to the final, it feels really deserving for them,” he said. “I think we were the better team tonight, Portola was a fantastic team, but these girls work so hard and to get to the final is a testament to how hard they’ve worked.”
“For me, being here this long, it’s well over-due, there are plenty of teams who could do it, but this team was the team that did it, so we’re really happy for them.”
Portola took the opening lead when Lily Nesland scored in the first half. Arllene Vite scored for Foothill to tie the match but Lorel Stringer scored for Portola to put the Bulldogs ahead 2-1 after the first half.
Paredes scored for Foothill in the second half to tie the match. But Nesland took control and charged in for her second goal to put the Bulldogs ahead 3-2.
However, the Bulldogs were unable to thwart Foothill’s comeback.
“It was a barn-burner, back and forth, chances on both ends, I think our counter-attacks were extremely dangerous, their physicality and the way that they played tried to overwhelm us in those individual, physical match-ups,” said Portola Coach Joshua Stringer. “They created a couple of chances and scored some scrappy couple goals against us.
“I liked the way we played the game, respectful of the game, love the game, these girls are respectful of the game, respect their opponents and so I just couldn’t be more proud of their approach to soccer. It’s a joy to watch and a joy to be a part of.”
Stringer said the school has applied for a berth in the CIF Regionals which will take place after the CIF finals.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com