Esperanza keeps rolling, reaches semifinals
ANAHEIM – The Esperanza girls soccer team dominated from start to finish in a 3-0 victory over Murietta Valley on Friday, leaving one question to be answered in the CIF-SS Division 1 championships.
Will anyone challenge the undefeated Aztecs?
Esperanza struck for three goals in the first 21 minutes of the quarterfinal against the Nighthawks (16-5-4), who were undefeated (6-0-3) in their previous away games this season.
The Sunset League champion Aztecs will play at Santa Margarita at 3 p.m. on Tuesday in its semifinal match. Santa Margarita defeated Capistrano Valley, 3-1, on Friday.
Esperanza (22-0-4) will play in its fourth semifinals in nine years under Coach John King. It will be their first trip since 2007.
The Aztecs have never reached the CIF-SS finals in girls soccer, but they have a great shot at doing so this season.
Esperanza beat Santa Margarita, 4-0, on Dec. 30 in the Excalibur Tournament.
“You know, we’ll just go down and do what we’ve been doing all year,” King said. “That’s competing and working hard and hoping for the best.”
Esperanza senior midfielder Kaleigh Dodson scored in the second minute. The Cal State San Marcos commit found a wide-open net after Nighthawks goalkeeper Rachel Boaz made an aggressive play for the ball. Defender Melissa Laxamana bumped the ball up and toward Dodson for the assist.
“Our coaches said to go after their keeper for the free kick,” Dodson said. “Our freshman, Nosa (Ogiamien), and I went after their keeper and the ball dropped out. I saw an opening in the upper left side and tried to place it there.”
Esperanza beat Millikan of Long Beach in the first round, 6-0, and trounced Trabuco Hills, 4-0, in the second round. The Aztecs collected their 18th shutout this season and eighth in a row.
“If we know we’re playing a team that we should have no problem with beating, we kind of drop down a level,” Dodson said. “But in CIF, we’ve just been taking every game seriously, with our seniors thinking it could be our last game ever. We try to inspire our team to play very hard.”
Dodson also had a hand – or foot – in the Aztecs’ second goal in the 14th minute. On an initial entry pass by defender Kennedy Roteman, sophomore forward Rylee Baidsen passed the ball to Dodson, who touched it from left to right to Erica Mazeau, who snuck it past Boaz right inside the lower left post.
“It’s something we’ve worked on all year is composure in the attacking third of the field,” King said. “A lot of people will panic, they don’t take their time. We’ve focused on taking our time.”
Seven minutes after Mazeau’s goal, Ogiamien scored on a header, on a light pass from her older sister, junior AB Ogiamien, on a throw-in.
Murrietta Valley did not seriously threaten in the first half, with its first shot on goal coming on a free kick in the 22nd minute. The Nighthawks hit the post in the 74th, then were ruled offside. A corner kick with one minute left in the game was punched by Esperanza goalkeeper Lacie Carver, it rolled along the crossbar and out of harm’s way.
“We stayed strong and we were communicating well,” said Aztecs senior defender Katie Gallanes, a Pepperdine commit who was on the 2007 squad that played in the semifinals. “It feels really amazing (to reach the semifinals), especially since we weren’t supposed to make it.
"Not everyone believed in us. Hopefully we showed everyone why we deserve to be there.”
