CIF Playoff Roundup: Glendora, St. Lucy's Soccer teams fall in second round action

It was a tough week in the CIF Southern Section soccer playoffs for most of the local area teams as both girl’s soccer and boy’s soccer teams went down in defeat, the boys losing on Wednesday afternoon and the girls the day before. soccer team also met the same fate Tuesday.

After pulling out a 1-0 first round win against Aliso Niguel on Feb. 18 at Azusa Pacific University, the Baseline League champion Tartans fell to visiting Huntington Beach Edison High School by the same score on Wednesday’s Division 1 second round playoff game.   

In the case of the Lady Tartans, despite besting their opponents 4-1 in the first half in shots on goal, and almost equaling their defensive intensity, the visiting Sunny Hills Lancers outshot Glendora in the second half and walked away with a 3-2 victory, albeit one which featured a controversial score.

Sunny Hills (6-2-3, 1-0) struck first, when a defensive lapse by Glendora (16-7-4, 6-4) resulted in a breakaway score and a 1-0 lead fifteen minutes into the game. The Tartans battled back to tie the game early in the second half on a shot from the left foot of junior midfielder, forward Alexandra Wilson, off a throw in by junior forward Amie Jepsen.

Sunny Hills took a 2-1 lead after taking advantage of another Glendora miscue, a penalty called on a Tartan defender, which set up a direct kick by the Lancers’ freshman forward Sarah Fajnor. The kick sailed past Glendora’s goalkeeper who ventured out of the box on the play.

Less than 12 minutes later, Sunny Hills scored again when a long range shot, which appeared to have been blocked by Glendora’s goal keeper hit the post and was ruled by the referee to have spun in and out of the goal.

   Glendora head coach George Sipa spoke about the controversial goal following the game.

“I don’t know, the goalie touched the ball, I don’t see how the ball can hit the post and the ball spin inside, and hit the other post and come out, I don’t get it. I won’t say we got robbed, but the referee didn’t help us today,” said Sipa.

The Tartans got a final goal from senior midfielder Amanda Brown assisted by Wilson and Priscilla Santos late in the second half, but their comeback fell short when they ran out of time. Despite this, Sipa said the team exceeded their season’s expectations.

“It has been a great season for us, we got moved up to this Baseline League, we knew the competition was going to be tough. Our main goal was to earn at least third place to make the CIF (playoffs) and we did it,” said Sipa, “This team just came very aggressive. They didn’t let us set up the game, they didn’t let us play.”

St Lucy’s Priory head coach Andy Plascencia said he was pleased with his team’s season, despite their 1-0 loss to Serrano High in Tuesday’s Division 3 CIF-SS second round playoff game.

The Regents finished 10-7-2 overall and 7-2-1 in the competitive Sierra League behind Claremont and Ayala. “We had a real great season, every time I challenged them they responded,” said Plascencia, “Serrano is a strong physical team. I liked the chances we created yesterday despite the fact we were missing one of our leading scorers.”

Junior forward Shannon Kent was hurt and did not play for the Regents Tuesday.