RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — In what Tesoro girls soccer coach George Deverrick called one of the biggest wins in program history, the Titans knocked off Mater Dei, 2-1, in the CIF-SS Division 1 quarterfinals Friday.
Tesoro (21-5-3) led wire to wire against the Monarchs, who hadn’t trailed in a game since Feb. 4.
“(The Monarchs) are the best team in CIF and they showed you that they don’t quit, why they’re the best team, why they’re the defending champs,” Deverrick said.
“It wasn’t pretty, but at times you just have to do that against teams that are that good.”
The Titans will play at Chino Hills (21-3-3) on Tuesday in the semifinals.
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Thursday’s scores, updated schedule
Roundup: Yorba Linda refuses to lose in quarterfinals
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Tesoro had five shots on goal. The Monarchs had 11, with six coming in an offensive frenzy after Skylar Smith gave the Titans a 2-0 lead with a goal in the 48th minute.
In the 54th minute Mater Dei’s Haley Hopkins fired a quick turnaround shot from the edge of the 10-yard box. It barely skimmed off Samantha Cude’s hands for a corner kick.
Hopkins launched another shot off the corner kick, but it ricocheted straight down after striking the bottom of the crossbar.
“We really haven’t had a lot of luck this year to be honest, so I think we were due some,” Deverrick said, referring to two Mater Dei shots that bounced off the goal posts.
The Monarchs (19-4-3) scored in the 71st minute and nearly tied it in the 76th, when Hopkins lofted a header off Jessica Harloe’s 50-yard free kick. But Cude sprawled to her right, fully extending her body to punch away the header for her eighth and final save.
“They made it real hard for us, and we were really close a number of times,” Mater Dei coach Matty West said. “We just weren’t able to find a way.”
Tesoro scored first in the fourth minute, when freshman Hunter More poked one in off Maesyn G’Bye’s 25-yard throw-in.
