State girls soccer: OT goal gives Faith Lutheran 5A title — PHOTOS
It wasn’t a surprise that Saturday’s Class 5A girls soccer state title game between Faith Lutheran and Coronado was close.
The last three meetings between the teams were decided by a final score of 1-0, and last week’s Southern Region title game between them went to overtime. And now so did the state title game.
So when Faith Lutheran senior midfielder Brooklyn Maier had the ball from 30 yards out late in the first overtime period, one thing was on her mind.
“I’m just going to shoot this and hope it goes in,” Maier said.
It did, and the Crusaders won the 5A girls title 1-0 on Saturday at Coronado.
“We wanted it as a team,” Faith Lutheran coach McKenzie Karas said. “Every single person. We were willing to grind it out until the end, and we did that.”
Karas called Maier the “workhorse” of the team. The first-year coach praised her senior’s effort on defense and said she was confident that Maier was going to find the back of the net if she had the opportunity to score
Senior goalie Elke Travis recorded eight saves for the Crusaders. Travis made a key save in overtime off a Coronado free kick to keep the game scoreless.
Faith Lutheran gave the Cougars their only loss of the regular season, but Coronado had defeated Faith Lutheran in last year’s state title game and in last week’s region final.
Getting back to the state title game and avenging its earlier losses weighed heavily on the minds of the Faith Lutheran players, Maier said.
“It was big,” she said. “All we were talking about was beating Coronado again, and we worked so hard for this. I’m proud of all these girls.”
Cimarron-Memorial 2, Doral Academy 0 — At Cimarron-Memorial, seniors Jasmine Chavarria-Lopez and Kasandra Dominguez-Garcia scored in the second half to give the Spartans their second straight 4A state title.
“In the first half we were a little bit sloppy, and everyone was nervous trying to keep it together,” Cimarron-Memorial coach Rosemary Zuniga said. “In the second half, I told them they had to dig deep. If you want this, you have to work together as a team and win the ball, and they did.”
Senior goalie Sarah Portillo recorded nine saves. She missed the second half of Cimarron-Memorial’s state semifinal win Friday with a finger injury.
Cimarron-Memorial’s lone loss in the regular season came to Doral Academy, which ended Cimarron’s 29-match winning streak. Zuniga said she turned the loss into a positive to take the pressure of being undefeated off her players’ shoulders.
The Spartans then handed Doral Academy (17-1) its only loss of the season Saturday.
“We have 10 seniors, so to win it back-to-back with these girls who were here last year is amazing,” Zuniga said. “I could not have asked for a better team and more talented group of girls that I had this year.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.
