The Clovis High Cougars’ Girls Soccer team gave up two goals in the final five minutes of regulation but escaped an upset loss in penalty kicks on Thursday night to secure a spot in the CIF Northern California Regional Championship.
The two teams traded successful penalty kicks all the way until the sixth round. The visiting Pumas’ shot struck the crossbar and sent Clovis to the state championship with a 6-5 win in the penalty shootout.
The story of the night – regardless of who won – was going to be the final minutes of regular time, however. With just seconds on the clock, Maria Carrillo scored the equalizing goal that sent the match to overtime. The Pumas celebrated as a stunned Cougars team looked on and watched as their once solid lead evaporated in the waning moments of the match.
“The reality is, we came together, we’ve been a team all year. We’ve lost together and we’ve won together and we’re going to the state championships.” Clovis head coach Ian Lynch said after the game when asked about the final minutes of regular time.
Lynch agreed with the sentiment that all that matters coming out of this game was the result rather than how the team got there.
“We have had some rough moments in the last two games, we definitely have not played our best soccer. You saw it for some moments here; we started off slow and we ended slow and we had a middle period where we played pretty well but we’re still trying to get that momentum going into Saturday and we’re going to try to be state champions,” Lynch said.
The Cougars’ operated in the offensive zone much more comfortably in the second half than they did in the first. The team’s offensive first half went by largely without being able to produce any significant challenge; any shot on goal was either from a sharp angle or it was taken through a myriad of defensive players and was inevitably blocked.
Maria Carrillo’s second goal, which brought the score to 3-2, seemed to be a moot point when it occurred. It looked destined to be a fact that would only matter on the stat sheets and one that would have little to no impact on the outcome of the game.
But with just seconds to play, Maria Carrillo found the equalizer from short distance after winning a scramble for possession on the right side of the Clovis goal.
“We’ve been together all year, we won together, we lost together… that character and that resolve has been there all year and it was there again tonight,” Lynch said when asked about how the team prepared themselves for overtime after the sudden change in momentum.
With this win, the Cougars not only secured a spot in the state championship game but also earned the right to host it with the Cougars set to battle for the title on their own turf at Lamonica stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m.