By Valentina Martinez
The Outlook
The Flintridge Prep varsity girls’ soccer team made history this year by winning the program’s first-ever CIF Southern Section Division 3 crown two weeks ago.
The Rebels were in a position to add another title last Saturday as they took on Academy of Our Lady of Peace from San Diego in the CIF State Southern California Regional Division 3 championship at St. Francis, but Erin Healy’s goal in overtime denied Flintridge Prep another crown and propelled the Pilots to a 3-2 victory.
OLP scored once in the first half and added another score in the second to build a two-goal lead. The Pilots attacked often but couldn’t put the game out of reach. Flintridge Prep finally got on the board in the 56th minute with a penalty kick from Mikaela Celeste. The midfielder tied the game moments later with a free kick.
Lindsey Uteda made 10 saves in the match and prevented the Pilots from scoring again in the second half to force the overtime period.
Head coach Esteban Chavez guided the Rebels (26-5-2 overall record) to a historic season, winning a CIF crown for the first time in the school’s history and reaching the Southern Regional final.
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The Flintridge Prep girls’ soccer team defeated Corona Centennial 1-0 in the CIF State Division 3 Southern Regional semifinals last Thursday.
The game was supposed to begin at 3pm but it soon changed owing to a misunderstanding involving the referees who believed the start time was an hour later.
Despite the late start, the Rebels didn’t hesitate to score early in the match. Captain and midfielder Mikaela Celeste scored put Prep on the board in the sixth minute with an assist from halfback Helen Schaefer.
Although unable to get their offense present in the first half, Centennial began to attack in the second half with the ball frequently on their side of the field. Taylor Hobbs, Giselle Michel, and Layla Comeaux all took shots against Prep assuring their opponent they would not go down without a fight.
Prep and Centennial maintained strong defensive play which suggests why both teams took few shots the entire game.
Tensions rose even higher in the last half of the match as Prep’s defense weakened and Centennial gained momentum. The second half was especially intense as girls yelled at referees for making calls they didn’t agree with, along with both teams continuing to remain unafraid to push their opponent. Mel Ng, a midfielder for the Rebels, was a victim of this second half intensity receiving a bloody nose which forced her to get subbed out from the match.
This intensity carried on as the Huskies received two yellow cards: one due to the head coach yelling at one of the referees and defensive player Merina Addonigio received the second for grabbing the Rebel’s Julia Gonzalez as she advanced to the goal.
Gonzalez also received one yellow card for elbowing a player on a corner kick.
Flintridge Prep goalkeeper Lindsey Uteda earned a shutout and recorded three saves. Centennial goalkeeper, Zoe Aguirre, also earned three saves.
