Sports
Top-Seeded Tritons' Girls Swarm Orange Lutheran in First Round of Soccer Playoffs
Five players score in 5-0 victory over visiting Lancers, sending San Clemente to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs on Tuesday.
The San Clemente girls soccer team kicked off the CIF Southern Section Division 1 postseason with a bang Thursday afternoon at Thalassa Stadium, dismantling Orange Lutheran, 5-0.
Five different Tritons scored goals as San Clemente outshot the Lancers, 22-4, and completely dominated possession, sending a clear statement to the rest of the playoff field that the No. 1 seed will be no easy task to topple.
After an opening 29 minutes in which San Clemente peppered the Orange Lutheran box with five shots and four corner setpieces, junior center-mid Danielle Weatherholt finally broke a scoreless tie with a 35-yard, far-post one-timer that rattled off the post before dropping in.
"I think [the win] is going to set the pace going into the next round," Weatherholt said. "We have a lot of depth on our team, and we worked really hard. We didn't stop at one [goal], we just kept going."
Weatherholt, who is the third-ranked club player in the Southern California region, and No. 20 in America, according to TopDrawerSoccer.com, had never scored a postseason goal for the Tritons before making it 1-0 Thursday.
"It felt amazing," she said. "I wasn't going to shoot initially, but I was like, 'Just trust it.' So I hit it as I was falling down, and it hit the post and went in."
Janae Cousineau wasted little time in adding to the lead, as she sent in a shot to the right corner of the net off a ricochet during a scrum in the box four minutes later to give San Clemente a 2-0 advantage heading into the break.
"The preparation for the game was executed," San Clemente coach Stacey Finnerty said. "That's always your concern as a coach going in, are they going to execute the plan? They all committed to it, they filled their roles, not to mention though, [we] have the talent that can step it up even more than I could ever hope for. I'm very fortunate."
The Tritons' collective talent was on full display during a second half in which Orange Lutheran failed to get off a single shot on goal, and spent less than five minutes in San Clemente's defensive zone. The rest of half was an offensive free-for-all for the home team, which sent in goals in the 7th, 22nd and 31st minutes, had a goal taken off the board by a whistle, fired 12 shots total, and added four more corner setpieces.
"Today's win has to do with them lifting each other up. That's what it was about," Finnerty said.
Tessa Andujar made it 3-0 when she slipped in a near-post roller from the left wing, Amanda Simkins made it 4-0 with an assist from Marlee Carillo, and Frannie Coxe added the final exclamation point with nine minutes left on the clock.
San Clemente keeper Sheridan Hapsic (four saves, two cross break-ups) watched the final 12 minutes of the contest from the comfort of the bench, as did a number of Triton starters.
Up next for San Clemente (16-2-7) is a second-round match with Yucaipa, which knocked off Laguna Hills Thursday, 3-1. A coin toss Friday will determine the location of the Tuesday contest.
"The competition is going to get harder," Weatherholt said. "But as long as we play as hard as we can, like we always do, we'll be fine."