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Sports

San Clemente's Girls Soccer Team Is Right Where It Expects to Be

Top-seeded Tritons'roll though the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs lands them in the championship match tonight, when they meet upstart Flintridge Sacred Heart.

It will be dominance versus destiny tonight at 7:30 at Mission Viejo High, where San Clemente and Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy are set to do battle for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 girls soccer championship.

The top-seeded Tritons (19-2-7), champions of the South Coast League, will be making their fourth straight appearance in the section championship, while No. 3 Sacred Heart (19-1-2), a team that has surprised many with a magical run through the playoffs that has included back-to-back wins over Tesoro and Esperanza, will be making its first appearance in the title match.

"A couple of their players are high-level players," San Clemente coach Stacey Finnerty said of Sacred Heart. "I've seen them play. They play a finesse game. They play similar to us, but we'll know [more by Friday], we still have some scouting reports to go over."

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San Clemente started the season making headlines in Texas, where they dominated Ursuline Academy of Dallas, a team ranked No. 3 in America by ESPN Rise heading into the Red Bull Nolan Showcase, 5-1, and spoiled both the perfect season and consecutive shutout streak of St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, FL., with a 1-0 win.

Those victories were just the first of many clutch performances for San Clemente, which hasn't lost a match since late December. Starting with a 5-0 drubbing of Orange Lutheran to kick off the postseason, the Tritons then rolled off two more shutouts victories, 3-0 at Yucaipa, and 1-0 at home over Corona del Mar.

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The Tritons' most impressive performance, however, may have come Tuesday, when they traveled to Santa Margarita and took down the Lauren Bohaboy-led Eagles, 2-2 (4-2), on penalty kicks. Sophomore stopper Sydney Fuertes was outstanding, as she and her backfield mates consistently turned away Bohaboy, a Notre Dame-bound, two-time ESPN Rise All-American.

San Clemente held Santa Margarita to only eight shots in regulation, while firing off 22 of their own, and proving to be the more accurate shooting squad following two scoreless overtime periods.

Up top, the Tritons are led by Frannie Coxe, an ESPN Rise All-American and the reigning Southern Section Offensive Player of the Year, who doubles as the brains of the outfit. The Yale-bound senior is also an NSCAA Scholar All-American, and one of the headiest attackers in the state.

San Clemente's spark plug is Florida-bound senior Tessa Andujar, who, though small in stature, is huge on heart, and, again, is one of the headiest players on the pitch. Andujar works the midfield to the wings and often sets the offense in motion, where forwards Alex Resinger (committed to Lafayette University) and freshman Nikki Faris, as well as Coxe, can find space and fire off shots-on-frame at a startling pace.

There are no weaknesses on any of San Clemente's levels, and that includes an iron-clad midfield captained by junior Dani Weatherholt, the third-ranked club player in Southern California, according to TopDrawerSoccer.com. Weatherholt, a multi-sport athlete, has a rare combination of physical tools and natural talent, and surrounded by gifted teammates Lindsey Grant, Janae Cousineau and Torri Sims (Chico State), is as dominant a dribbler, passer and defender as there is in Orange County.

Anchored by junior keeper Sheridan Hapsic, another of San Clemente's classroom and club soccer prodigies, the Tritons' defense has both size and speed, and is downright stingy.

Marlee and Mikaela Carillo (Idaho State) can play both mid and backfield and, teamed with Fuertes, often create headaches for opposing offenses. Although Santa Margarita was able to capitalize on two of its eight shots in the semifinals, Hapsic recorded three straight clean sheets to start the playoffs.

"We don't know much about Sacred Heart, so it's going to be another hard game, like always," Hapsic said. "We're just going to have to pull through."

Although Sacred Heart will be playing in its first section championship match, the Tologs have plenty of reasons to feel confident.

After surviving a scare from Aliso Niguel in the second round, Sacred Heart beat Tesoro, 3-1, after the Titans had rolled off a 14-game unbeaten streak that included nine shutouts. Then the Tologs followed it up with a 1-0 golden-goal overtime win over second-seeded Esperanza in Anaheim.

Alyssa Conti, a Johns Hopkins commit who only 17 months ago lost the use of her legs to viral encephalitis and Guillain-Barre syndrome and had to teach herself to walk and run again, scored the game-winning goal in the 84th minute.

Alongside Conti. senior captain Natalie Zeeni, as well as forward Breanna Koemans and keeper Lindsey Espe, are all players that San Clemente must account for Friday evening.

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