The Bonita Vista High School girls soccer team defeated Mater Dei Catholic, 6-0, in last Friday’s final regular season game to lay undisputed claim to this year’s Metro-Mesa League championship. But the Barons could not muster even one goal in Tuesday’s San Diego Section Division I playoff game against visiting La Jolla, falling 1-0 in overtime to make a quick and unsatisfying exit from post-season play.
But the regular season? That was very satisfying, according to BVHS head coach Ryan Marquez.
“We had a tough beginning (a 7-7-2 start to the 2015-16 season),” Marquez explained. “I think the girls did a great job of turning a rough preseason into a league championship season.”
La Jolla, the 11th seed, entered Tuesday’s game with a somewhat non-menacing 4-11-4 record while sixth-seeded Bonita Vista (13-8-3) appeared to have all the momentum coming off a 6-1-1 run in league play.
But the Lady Barons were missing a pair of key players for the playoffs — junior captain Natalya Romaine and sophomore Torrye Provencher. Their absence was felt, according to Marquez.
“It just didn’t work out for us,” Marquez said. “We did not make all the adjustments.”
Bonita Vista controlled wide stretches of play in the second half but had no finishing power. The Lady Vikings put on a spurt near the end, with Emma McCall-Delgado slamming a wide open shot off the crossbar.
McCall-Delgado made up for her miss with the game-winning goal scored about five-and-a-half minutes into sudden-victory overtime.
On the game-winning play, Phoebe Riley won a ball along the left sideline and quickly switched the ball to the right side to teammate Charli Davey, who then cut the ball back to McCall-Delgado in the six-yard box.
McCall-Delgado, staring BVHS goalkeeper Brooke Hawkins at point-blank range, didn’t miss this time.
Second-half surge
The league title appeared to be Eastlake’s to win after the visiting Lady Titans shut out the Lady Barons, 2-0, on Jan. 20. Bonita Vista followed that game with a 4-4 draw against Otay Ranch on Jan. 27 to kick off league play 0-1-1.
“We felt pretty low at that point,” Marquez said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen.”
The Lady Barons failed to lose a match over their remaining six league games — wining all six. Included was a key 2-0 victory at Eastlake on Feb. 9. Prior to the loss to Bonita Vista, the Lady Titans had played to a 1-1 tie against Otay Ranch.
“When they tied Otay Ranch, that kind of opened the door for us,” Marquez explained. “We thought we had a chance to win it at that point.”
Romaine and Ari Hernandez scored the goals for Bonita Vista in the win over Eastlake. Hawkins and Alyssa Tucker combined for 12 saves in posting the shutout victory.
Nikki Miranda had two goals and two assists in the win over Mater Dei Catholic while Torrye Provencher, Shae Provencher, Amanda Castillo and Martha Diaz each scored single goals. Hawkins received credit for the shutout victory.
La Jolla advances to Friday’s quarterfinals against third-seeded Point Loma (19-2-2).
Boys soccer preview
Bonita Vista earned the No. 2 seed in the Division III playfoffs and will host seventh-seeded Montgomery Saturday at 5 p.m. at Otay Ranch High School. The quarterfinal match-up is a rematch of last year’s Division IV championship tilt that went to the Aztecs.
Baron head coach Tracy Powell said he feels comfortable with his team’s seeding position.
“One of our goals with making the CIF playoffs is to reach for the No. 1 or No. 2 seed,” Powel explained Powell, whose team fnished Metro-Mesa League plaay with a 4-2-2 record. “We accomplished this by scheduling Open, Division I and Division II teams. Every game prepared us for the big CIF show. Losses to Carlsbad (1-0), Mission Hills (in kicks from the mark) and Mater Dei Catholic (1-0) were good for us. As a Division III team it tells us that we cancompete with the best of the best.
“We want to stay focused and disciplined as a team. The team goal is to make it back to the finals.”
