CIF-SS girls soccer roundup: Oaks Christian makes quarterfinals for first time in 6 years

Joe Curley, Ventura County Star
·6 min read
Westlake's Tatum Wynalda gets ready to fire a shot for a goal during the Warriors' 3-2 win over Vista Murrieta at Westlake High in a Division 2 second-round match Wednesday night.
Westlake's Tatum Wynalda gets ready to fire a shot for a goal during the Warriors' 3-2 win over Vista Murrieta at Westlake High in a Division 2 second-round match Wednesday night.

The Oaks Christian School girls soccer team overcame its recent struggles from the penalty spot Wednesday night to advance to the sectional quarterfinals for the first time since 2016.

Berkley Mape, Isa Wieder, Avery Oder and Charlotte Ward converted from the spot as the young Lions advanced, 4-3 on penalty kicks, after a scoreless draw at Santa Clarita-West Ranch in the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 second round.

“It was a typical CIF away game,” said Oaks Christian head coach Sebastian Alvarado said. “The field was narrow. It was windy in Santa Clarita. They had a lot of seniors. We couldn’t finish and the game went to overtime. For such a young team, I thought they held their composure.”

Oaks Christian had been eliminated in its last three postseason shootouts, including 2019 against Moorpark and 2016 against Irvine-Northwoods.

More:

Perhaps more impressively, four of the six penalty takers for Oaks Christian were freshmen. Goalkeeper Hannah Wieler, who won the shootout, is also a freshman.

“It was a big moment for some of those underclassmen,” Alvarado said.

Oaks Christian (16-1-4) will host Redlands-Citrus Valley (15-3-3) in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Subscription sale: Only $1 per month for 6 months. Subscribe today!

Division 1

Harvard-Westlake 2, Moorpark 0: The Coastal Canyon League champion fell to the third seed.

Moorpark finishes its season at 11-6-2.

Division 2

Westlake 3, Vista Murrieta 2: Junior Lex Sahagian scored two goals and senior Tatum Wynalda had a goal and an assist as the top-seeded Warriors overcame early mistakes to advance.

Westlake (15-1-1) took the lead three times, including twice in the first half, but two defensive lapses kept the visitors even 2-2 at the half.

“We responded right away, which is all you can ask for,” Westlake head coach Frank Marino said. “To give up the goal with you a minute left in the first half was sort of sort of a bummer.”

Wynalda provided the game-winning goal in the 46th minute, collecting a half clear, taking a touch and driving a low, right-footed shot across the face of goal into the bottom left corner.

“It came down to the end, but we grinded it out,” Wynalda said. “We didn’t make it easy for ourselves. … We’re all really excited to go into the quarters.”

Westlake will host Newhall-Hart in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Orange-Lutheran 2, Oxnard 0: The host scored a goal in each half to end the Yellowjackets’ run.

“We had some real good chances, especially at the beginning,” said Oxnard head coach Andrew Aguailar. “If we put one of those chances in, it’s a different game, obviously.”

Senior Malia Tarazon hit the crossbar in the first half.

“It was actually a really entertaining game, really open game,” Aguailar said. “We were out there competing at the same level.”

Division 3

Irvine-Portola 2, Thousand Oaks 0: Jenna Verplancke scored two goals late in the second half to eliminate the host Lancers.

“It was a good game,” Thousand Oaks head coach Clay Cameron said. “They were a good team. ... Both teams had their chances.”

Thousand Oaks had a breakaway and Portola hit the crossbar off a free kick in the first half.

“We had a couple looks in the second half,” Cameron said. “We got in behind them a couple times on the wings and put the ball across.”

Verplancke pounced on a half clearance and let rip from distance in the 64th minute. She put the match away in the 72nd.

“It was tough because I thought we were pretty evenly matched,” Cameron said.

Division 4

Pasadena-Mayfield 3, Ventura 0: Sonya Smeritschnig and Kaitlyn Gomez both had a goal and assist as fourth-seeded Mayfield (17-2-2) eliminated the Cougars at Larrabee Stadium.

Ventura finished its season at 12-7-2.

Division 6

Fillmore 4, Ontario Christian 1: Marlene Gonzalez had a goal and an assist and Alexis Velasco, Isabela Regalado and Jennifer Abrego scored goals as Fillmore (10-5-4) advanced to the quarterfinals.

“The girls played hard today,” head coach Jose Luis Lomeli said. “That was a good team. We had to make quick adjustments.”

The Flashes turned a one-goal game into a rout with two goals in the final 20 minutes.

“It’s meshing right now,” said Lomeli. “There’s been some girls who were hurt, some of the girls who stepped up off the bench have really made an impact.”

Fillmore hosts A.B. Miller in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Santa Clara 2, Newport Beach-Sage Hill 1: Nelissa Pulido and Janessah Gonzalez scored first-half goals as the Saints marched into the quarterfinals for the second time in three years.

Santa Clara built a 2-0 halftime lead and hung on after the visitors pulled within a goal midway through the second half.

“The last 25 minutes they were on us, after they scored,” said head coach Jose Abraham Pina. “We played a solid 55 minutes. We kind of started getting away from our style (in the second half), 2-0 is always that tricky score. If you don’t put them away, they’ll get one and get the momentum.

Santa Clara (12-2-1) will visit top-seeded Redlands-Arrowhead Christian in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

“Should be a good one,” said Pina. “I think we’re peaking at the right time."

Division 7

Thacher 8, Santa Monica-New Roads 0: Jordan Yates finished with five goals and an assist and Hattie Hatton had two goals and five assists as top-seeded Thacher (12-1-1), which didn’t have a season in 2020-21, advanced to the quarterfinals for the second time in the past three years.

The Toads will visit San Bernardino-Aquinas (13-8-2) in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Joe Curley covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage of local high school sports, follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: GIRLS SOCCER: Oaks Christian, Westlake advance to Div. 2 quarterfinals