Dos Pueblos girls soccer suffered a 1-0 loss to La Mirada High in the opening round of the CIF-SS Div. 3 playoffs on Thursday night at Scott O’Leary Stadium in Goleta.
The Chargers, who boasted 10 seniors under first-year soccer head coach George Hedricks, end the season with an overall record of 13-5-5, an improvement from last year’s seven-win campaign.
“I felt lucky to get into this group and have a good group of girls who were willing to take on a new coach who may be a baseball coach or a football coach,” Hedricks said. “I think the relationships we’d already built with these girls through the other sports and being on campus, there was a trust they had, and I trusted them.
“We have a really good senior class, 10 seniors, but then a really good sophomore core, and juniors right behind them. Hopefully, these girls who are coming back next year got a ton of experience, and then we’ll just keep that going next year.”
The first half was a defensive battle, as neither squad could break into the scoring column and the game went into halftime knotted up at 0-0.
Despite the game remaining scoreless, Dos Pueblos had control for the majority of the opening half. The Chargers consistently had the ball in the attacking third and earned three corner kicks, but they struggled to get shots off consistently.
“I think we came out early and put some pressure on them right off the bat,” Hedricks said. “I think [La Mirada] did a good job of adjusting to us, but I still think we had a lot of opportunities and some pretty dang good shots on goal and just couldn’t get it on frame.”
Meanwhile, the Dos Pueblos back line held strong and allowed very limited action inside of its own penalty box.
The few times that La Mirada applied pressure in the form of a shot on goal, Charger goalkeeper Darlene Aguilar came up with the save and ended with four in the first half.
“I can’t say enough good things about Darlene and what she did all year,” Hedricks said. “She came in (as) a junior and had a senior ahead of her. Jocelyn (Simmons) played really well on the goal for us. There were a couple of games where Darlene had some spot starts and really shined.
“So when Jocelyn went down, I think [Darlene] had some confidence from those games where she had already stepped up… She made some big saves for us all year, and I’m super excited that she’s a junior, and I get her back.”
Dos Pueblos was aggressive out of the break as Paige Ferro and Hazel Burgess each registered shots on goal, but they were both saved by the La Mirada goalkeeper.
The 0-0 score held until the 53rd minute, when the Chargers were called for a handball in their own penalty box. La Mirada’s Zoey Santiago stepped up to the ball and buried it into the bottom right corner to give her team a 1-0 lead.
“I think it’s just a little mental mistake that happened at the 30-40 yard line that let them get some pressure and get that corner kick, and unfortunately, it was an unlucky handball,” Hedricks said.
“The ball bounced up weirdly and hit her, that’s kind of a fluky deal there and it’s really unfortunate that this game came down to that.”
Both defenses held strong down the stretch, as the Charger defensive unit gave its offense a chance for the equalizer but they couldn’t capitalize and La Mirada escaped with the road win.
“I feel like our defense has been our backbone all year and it’s kept us in a lot of games,” Hedricks said. “Finishing has probably been something we’ve worked the hardest to fix all year long… In the 2nd half, we had some good opportunities and just couldn’t get the ball in the net.”
La Mirada will now take on Valencia in a second-round matchup on Saturday.