Win-win situation for Montgomery High School soccer teams

Four Metro Conference teams took the pitch in last Saturday’s San Diego Section soccer finals. Two walked off the field with division championships.

Montgomery captured the Division II boys title with a 3-1 victory against Mission Hills while Eastlake claimed the Division I girls championship with a 1-0 win over La Costa Canyon.

As for the other two teams, Montgomery finished runner-upto San Dieguito Academy by a 1-0 score in the Division IV girls final while Otay Ranch finished runner-up to Division III girls champion Our Lady of Peace after absorbing a 5-1 defeat.

All four local teams are to be congratulated on advancing to the championship round.

Montgomery’s boys and girls teams, however, deserve special recognition.

The school set a precedent by appearing in a championship double-header at Mission Bay High School. Never before in school history had the school’s girls soccer team advanced to the CIF finals, much less play alongside the school’s boys soccer team in a championship double-header.

The second-seeded Lady Aztecs marched onto the synthetic turf field at Mission Bay High School for its 1:30 p.m. match against top-seeded San Dieguito Academy carrying a school-record 25-game unbeaten streak (19 wins, six ties). The Montgomery boys followed at 4:30 p.m.

The Lady Aztecs came up short in their game, though not for lack of effort.

Daniel Cohen, Montgomery High School’s assistant principal of student activities, said the school’s girls soccer team made a turnaround when current head coach Jennifer Tamayo was hired to coach the team three years ago.

“It’s the most successful three years of girls soccer we’ve had at the school,” Cohen remarked. “We’ve done better each year. This is the first year we’ve made it to the finals.”

The Lady Aztecs, previously longtime doormats of the conference, did not embarrass themselves.

San Dieguito Academy owned the run of play for the first 10 minutes of the match before Montgomery (19-1-6) was able to settle down and generate an attack.

Both teams exchanged scoring chances after that.

The Lady Mustangs (15-7-4) scored the lone goal in the match in the 53rd minute on a sensational individual effort by sophomore Julia Lucero.

Lucero took possession of the ball at midfield, then proceeded to break away along the right attacking flank. She cut in near the corner flag and brought the ball right out in front of the Lady Aztec net. Lucero’s final act was to slot the ball beyond the reach of Montgomery starting goalkeeper Alexis Espino.

Espino, who received her team’s sportsmanship award, made a sliding kick save in the 61st minute to preserve her team’s one-goal deficit on the scoreboard.

Prior to the San Dieguito Academy goal, Montgomery had its best scoring chance denied when Lady Mustang ’keeper Makena Garvey absorbed a point-blank shot by Klarysa O’Hara.

The shot hit Garvey in the midsection, doubling her over and requiring a time out before she could return to play.

Espino later had to leave the game following her kick save, but returned to active duty 10 minutes later.

Despite pressure by the Lady Aztecs, the SDA defense remained well organized throughout the game.

The Lady Mustangs rejected another point-blank salvo fired by Montgomery in the final stages of regulation time.

Though there were understandably tears after the game on the part of the Lady Aztecs, Montgomery athletic director Troy Beale told the team to be proud of what it accomplished this season.

“All the teams that come after you this year will look up to this team,” he said.

The 19 wins are a school record, as is the 25-game unbeaten streak in regular season play.

Success was immediate upon Tamayo’s arrival.

The Lady Aztecs advanced to the Division V semifinals two years ago and made it to the Division IV semifinals last season.

“We really pushed the girls to play the ball and never give up,” noted Tamayo, an army veteran.

Montgomery b(7-0-3 in league play) finish edin a tie with Mar Vista (8-1-1 in league play) for best winning percentage (.850) in the league. Teh teams thus share a co-championship.

Mar Vista (18-5-3) suffered elimination in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs.  The seventh-seeded Lady Mariners came up short in a 3-2 setback to 10th-seeded Orange Glen.

O’Hara, a sophomore, had tallied 29 goals through the Lady Aztecs’ quarterfinal playoff game against Orange Glen on Feb., 25.

Espino had recorded 14 shutouts and 16 wins in her team’s initial 22 games this season.

State playoffs

San Diego Section champions earned berths in this week’s Southern California regional state playoffs.

Montgomery received the No. 2 seed in the Division III boys bracket and slipped past seventh-seeded Saddleback, 5-4, in a high-scoring affair in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. The Aztecs (17-3-4) advanced to Thursday’s semifinals against third-seeded Del Norte (15-5-5), the San Diego Section Division III champion.

The winner advances to Saturday’s division championship game.

Eastlake’s girls soccer team received the No. 7 seed in the Division II regionals but failed to advance past second-seeded Vista Murrieta in Tuesday’s quarterfinals after dropping a 1-0 decision.

The Lady Titans finish the season 17-6-2; Vista Murrieta (20-5-2) advanced to Thursday’s semifinals against third-seeded San Marcos (21-1-4), the San Diego Section’s Open Division third-place finisher.