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Sports

San Clemente Overcomes Slow Start to Win Regional Opener

Tritons fall behind by two goals in the first two minutes, but rally with four straight goals, including the game-winner by Dani Weatherholt, to hold off Westview, 4-3.

Many San Clemente fans probably were wondering how their girls soccer team would react after a heartbreaking loss in the CIF Southern Section Division I final only four days ago. Their worst fears were confirmed two minutes into the regional opener Tuesday afternoon when first-round opponent Westview scored goals on their first two shot attempts, leaving the Tritons’ faithful stunned and bewildered.

However, the top-seeded Tritons, who were making their county-record fourth appearance in the regional championship tournament, did not panic. And the home crowd's feelings went from shock to awe.

San Clemente scored three goals inside of 15 minutes to lead at halftime, and then got a goal from Dani Weatherholt at the 68th minute that proved to be the game-winner in the Tritons’ 4-3 victory over the Wolverines in the opening round of the CIF Southern California Regional Girls Soccer Championships at Thalassa Stadium.

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The Tritons (20-3-7) advance to the regional semifinals at home Thursday at 4 p.m. against fourth-seeded Bullard (24-3-1) from Fresno (Central Section), a 2-1 winner over Ventura's Buena on Tuesday.

San Clemente won the state title in 2009 and finished runner-up last season in both the CIF and state finals. However, for the first 24 minutes against Westview, which captured the San Diego Section Division 2 championship Saturday, it didn’t look as if the Tritons would get close to repeating those performances.

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Westview scored in the first 45 seconds when Meggie Gulczynski went unguarded down the left side of the field and beat Tritons goalkeeper Sheridan Hapsic with a hard shot in the lower-left corner. A minute later, Alyson Roahane was awarded a goal when the ball went off a Tritons defender over a stunned Hapsic for a 2-0 lead.

Suddenly, the boisterous Tritons fans grew silent for one of the few times this year.

“When that happened, I told the defense to get their heads out of their [expletive],” said senior Frannie Coxe, who was nursing a bruised thigh muscle incurred during the second half of the section final. “There was no way I was going to lose like that my senior year. One of my teammates came up and said, ‘Frannie, let’s go!’ and I knew we had to get going.”

San Clemente senior Mikaela Carrilo, who missed the second half Saturday after being hit hard on a loose ball, admitted that the players still were hurting following the Tritons’ 1-0 loss to Flintridge Sacred Heart in the section final, and it showed early against Westview.

“It was hard after losing CIF. We worked so hard to get there, and it was everything to us,” Carrilo said. “But we decided that state was a way to make up losing CIF. It’s not very often that you get a second chance like that.”

“We thought of it as a gift,” Coxe added. “We have a second chance to play and be together for another week. We can’t do anything about [the Southern Section title] now. We looked at state as an opportunity.”

It was the gifted, reliable veteran Coxe, who will be attending Yale in the fall, who finally got the Tritons going and on the scoreboard.

First, Coxe used her excellent footwork to get free of a Wolverines defender and fired a 40-yard shot high and into the center of the net to close the gap to 2-1 at 26:30. Then, at the 33rd-minute mark, Coxe took a throw-in by junior Marlee Carrilo and used her height to head the ball over the Wolverines defenders to tie the score at 2-2.

“I wanted to be the one to make things happen. I knew we could do this,” Coxe said. “They played a different style and it caught us off guard. That’s how they scored those first two goals. Hand it to them, they did a good job early. The thing about us is how hard we work. We all want to win equally as bad.”

Less than five minutes later, Madison Kaminski found a loose ball in front of the net after two shots on goal and chipped it in to give the Tritons a 3-2 lead.

“That showed the true character of this team to come back down 2-0,” Tritons coach Stacey Finnerty said. “I said when they scored that it’s early. We’re going to come back.”

San Clemente finally got a break early in the second half when a Wolverines shot hit the crossbar and post. The Tritons counter-attacked and in the 66th minute Alex Gerrain found Dani Weatherholt alone in front of the Westview net. The junior calmly found the lower-left corner and pushed the ball across for a 4-2 advantage.

That goal proved to be the game-winner as Westlake came back with a furious rally in the final five minutes, with Rohane scoring her second goal of the match to close the gap. However, the defense and Hapsic (five saves) were able to stave off the rally to secure the 20th win of the season for the Tritons.

“That was not an eighth-seed. I’ve seen them play and they are very, very good,” Finnerty said of Westview. The Tritons defeated the Wolverines, 3-0, on December 11 at the Butch Lee Memorial Tournament in San Diego. “I always feel fortunate to win. The difficulty was because of that disappointment [at the section finals]. But I think this team can win state. We always want to do better. We always have something to prove.”

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