San Clemente Has Enough in Reserve to Defeat Corona del Mar, 1-0

One team’s top player is best friends with the other team’s goalkeeper. Another starter played for the opposing team two years before transferring. Many of the players either play on the same club team or see them regularly during the club season. Even the team’s nicknames seem to have come from the same family.

To say that San Clemente and Corona del Mar’s girls soccer team seem remarkably similar, along with being league champions, would be an understatement.

So it figured that it would take a reserve sophomore midfielder, who usually plays a few minutes in the second half of each game, to be the hero.

Danielle Mellen took a pass from Tessa Andujar, hit the bottom of the crossbar with a shot, and the ball dropped just barely over the goal line in the 61st minute to give the Lady Tritons of San Clemente an emotional 1-0 victory over the Sea Queens of Corona del Mar Thursday afternoon in a quarterfinal of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs on a sunny but crisp afternoon at San Clemente High.

“I didn’t see the ball go over the line, but I knew it was close,” Mellen said. “For me to come off the bench to win the game, I really feel like part of the team now.”

Top-seeded San Clemente (18-2-7), the South Coast League champion, dominated play throughout most of the match but needed a fortunate bounce to get into the semifinals, where it will meet another league champion, Santa Margarita. The Trinity League champions defeated Trabuco Hills in another quarterfinal, 1-0. The semifinal match will be played Tuesday at Santa Margarita High.

Corona del Mar, the Pacific Coast League champion, finished its season at 16-4-4.

“Our game plan was to absorb their attack and then counter-attack them,” Corona del Mar coach Brian Middleton said. “If we had pushed hard, their center midfield play would have [hurt us]. We were hoping to run a play and get a 1-0 lead, and when we got down we were hoping for overtime. But we played with them.”

The Lady Tritons are within one game of returning to the Southern Section final, which they lost last year to Esperanza. The Lady Tritons have won five section championships in the past 11 years, and were crowned state champions in 2009. But the title game might be the last thing they are thinking about after their narrow victory over Corona del Mar.

“We need to take it one game at a time and start preparing [for Santa Margarita] tomorrow,” senior Frannie Coxe said. “This game was the first game where we all contributed 100 percent. It was a team effort. We kept pushing and pushing until we scored, and even after that we didn’t let up. Everybody played for each other.”

Coxe and Andujar, whose “BF” is Corona del Mar goalkeeper Lindsey Luke, led a relentless Lady Tritons attack the entire match. They aggressively pursued the Sea Queens all over the field, even on passes to the defensive backs, and won all the 50/50 balls as the Sea Queens gave up dozens of throw-ins and corner kicks.

Coxe attempted eight of the team’s 30 shots, two on goal. The Lady Tritons peppered Luke with 12 shots on goal. On one shot in particular, Coxe’s from about 30 yards, appeared headed for the top part of the net, but Luke tipped it up and away at the last moment, drawing a laugh from both players. Coxe hit the crossbar once, as did Janae Cousineau, who finished with five shot attempts and three shots on goal.

“She said she couldn’t let me have that one,” Coxe said.

The Lady Tritons were so dominate in the first half that they attempted 14 shots to the Sea Queens’ one, and never were forced into a single goal kick. Still, San Clemente couldn’t get a shot past Luke, who finished with eight saves.

“That was one of our better [games] of the year,” Lady Tritons coach Stacey Finnerty said, “but Lindsay is such a great goalie that we knew it could only take one [goal].”

In the second half, the Sea Queens finally began getting the ball out of their end and attempted more shots (seven), but only had three shots on goal, two by sophomore Maddie O’Connor. Junior Allyson Brahs, the team’s leading scorer with 16 goals this season, was held without a shot attempt, and Annie Alvorado (nine goals) had one.

Lady Tritons goalkeeper Sheridan Hapsic finished with three saves for her seventh straight shutout and 18th of the season. That’s 560 minutes without allowing a goal, during which the Tritons have outscored their opponents 24-0.

Andujar, who played her freshman and sophomore years at Corona del Mar, said she knew it would be a tough matchup going in because the opposing players knew all her moves, but getting the victory would go a long ways toward their ultimate goal.

“I’m really excited,” Andujar said. “This win definitely gives us confidence going into the next game.”