When the girls soccer teams from Mountain View and St. Francis highs faced off in December, the Lancers held Spartans’ star Allie Montoya without a goal in a game that ended in a 1-all tie.
In Friday night’s rematch, with the Central Coast Section Open Division title at stake, Montoya wouldn’t be denied. She scored twice in top-seeded Mountain View’s 3-1 win over No. 2 St. Francis at Del Mar High.
The teams battled for nearly 30 minutes before Montoya made the game’s first goal, firing a straightaway shot from 26 yards out that sailed over the head of airborne goalie Lauren Royse.
“I just called for the ball because I was open,” Montoya said of the scoring play. “Then I saw the (defensive) player coming at me, so I took a touch by her and I felt like it was a good opportunity to shoot.”
An opportunity that came about shortly after coach Jeff Panos had the Stanford-bound senior switch positions.
“We had just moved her in the middle of the midfield because she wasn’t having much success on the wing,” Panos said, “and she scores the ball, like, 30 seconds later, so that was great.”
With two minutes left in the half, Montoya struck again. Her 15-yard shot from the right side of the field landed just inside the left goalpost.
“It was kind of a cross, so I got lucky and it went in,” Montoya said.
That two-goal lead grew to three just five minutes into the second half when Abby Westcott made a shot even longer than Montoya’s first one. The senior’s 30-plus yard free kick near the right sideline found the left side of the net.
“Abby floated one up there, and it was just one of those things when you know it’s your night – we called it Mountain View magic,” Panos said. “This was her fourth goal from distance like that on a free kick this season.”
It was a stunner for St. Francis, which entered the game having allowed only eight goals all season.
“I don’t think they’re three goals better than us, that’s for sure,” Lancers coach Carlos Barboza said. “Two of them were special goals – unsavable goals. Those shots were one in 100. That was a little deflating.”
The Lancers didn’t give up, though. Pushing more players forward, they decisively outshot the Spartans the rest of the way. But Mountain View’s defense – led by backs Charis Toney, Elechi Iroaga and Emily Chang, along with goalie Sophia Sasaki – kept St. Francis off the scoreboard until the 78th minute. That’s when freshman phenom Charlotte Kohler drilled a shot into the right side of the goal from about 9 yards out.
“We deserved at least one,” Barboza said.
It came nearly 10 minutes after Sasaki saved Brooklyn O’Brien’s penalty kick, diving right to snare the shot. St. Francis had two other solid chances late in the first half: Caroline Kane’s shot bounced off the crossbar and O’Brien just missed wide right.
“You’ve just got to hang on those last 5, 10 minutes,” Panos said. “They’re chucking everything in the kitchen sink at you and you’ve got to clear the ball away, and we survived that part.”
Both teams will now try to survive the Northern California Division I playoffs. Fourth-seeded Mountain View (21-0-1) hosts No. 5 Clovis North (20-3-1) at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, in the quarterfinals. The winner meets No. 1 Oak Ridge (13-0-3) or No. 8 Windsor (16-1-2) in the semifinals 5 p.m. Thursday at the higher seed’s home. Seventh-seeded St. Francis (14-1-5) takes on No. 2 Carondelet (20-0-1) at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at De La Salle, with the victor facing No. 3 Buchanan (18-2-1) or No. 6 Whitney (17-6-2) 5 p.m. Thursday in the semis at the home of the higher seed.
