Foss' late goal lifts Moorpark girls soccer team into CIF-State Div. III regional final

Joe Curley, Ventura County Star
·2 min read
Moorpark's Gianna Foss (3) scores the game-winning goal in the 80th minute to lift the Musketeers to a 3-2 win over Bishop Amat in a CIF-State Southern California Division III regional semifinal match at Moorpark High on Thursday night.
Moorpark's Gianna Foss (3) scores the game-winning goal in the 80th minute to lift the Musketeers to a 3-2 win over Bishop Amat in a CIF-State Southern California Division III regional semifinal match at Moorpark High on Thursday night.

The Moorpark High girls soccer team will again play for the Southern California championship.

Gianna Foss scored the game-winning goal in second-half stoppage time as the Musketeers advanced to the CIF-State Division III Southern California regional final with a 2-1 semifinal win over visiting Bishop Amat on Thursday night.

“For them, it was validating because Bishop Amat was ranked No. 1 in the CIF polls going into (the playoffs),” Moorpark coach Mike Alexander said. “It was validating to get the result we needed to get against them.”

Moorpark, which was seeded No. 3 seed in the sectional playoffs, has now defeated the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 seeds.

“Bishop Amat has special players,” Alexander said. “They tried to play and tried to get after it.”

Moorpark (20-4) will host Huntington Beach-Marina (13-7-6) for the regional title Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

It is a rematch of last Saturday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 3 final, won by Moorpark 2-1 at Long Beach City College.

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“Having it at home is huge,” Alexander said.

Moorpark previously reached regional finals in 2016 and 2017, beating San Marcos of the San Diego Section for the Division II title in 2017.

Moorpark advanced to the final match of the Southern California high school soccer season following a wild game Thursday against a quality opponent.

Tied 1-1, the match was decided in the final minutes, moments after both teams were reduced to 10 players due to matching red cards.

“We found a way to break them down,” Alexander said. “Gianna did a great job putting it away. Our whole bench cleared off to go celebrate. We had to get them all off the field with another minute and 30 seconds left.”

Star striker Mimi Dominguez put Bishop Amat ahead in the opening 20 minutes. The UC Riverside commit ripped a shot from the left into the upper corner to put the Musketeers behind for the first time in the postseason.

Down 1-0 at the half, Moorpark equalized three minutes into the second half, when junior forward Naomi Tobias put senior midfielder Gabriela Beauchemin through to finish.

“Both teams were attacking,” Alexander said.

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

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Foss' late goal lifts Moorpark into CIF-State Div. III regional final