No. 3 El Toro needs late goal to tie Northwood

IRVINE - No. 3 El Toro had to rally late Tuesday against Northwood to maintain its unbeaten status in the Sea View League.

Senior Liz Nare scored the tying goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, as the Chargers and the Timberwolves played to a 1-1 tie at Meadowood Park.

“Even when we were down, 1-0, we kept fighting,” El Toro coach Kendal Billingsley said. “We came out lethargic and not ready play, and we need to be mentally prepared from the start.”

The first-place Chargers (12-3-3, 5-0-2) are three points ahead of Northwood (9-9-3, 3-1-3) in the Sea View League. Both teams have three league matches remaining.

“I thought we played well and competed,” Timberwolves coach Chris Woolley said. “We did a good job to find a goal off our set piece, but lost a little focus and it was unfortunate to give up that goal at the end.”

Northwood opened the match on the attack, but it was not able to take advantage of strong possessions in the attacking third. The play of senior Amy Marchi and sophomore Sydnie Telson spurred the Chargers' defensive effort.

El Toro began to get pressure in its attacking third later in the half, led by the efforts of Emily Goldstein, Izzy Pozurama and Megan Daniels. But the Northwood defense and the play of Timberwolves junior goalie Sydney Smith prevented any goals, and the match was scoreless at intermission.

Though El Toro’s offensive attack continued to produce chances in the second half, the Chargers could not capitalize. Smith and the defense of junior Tara Budnick and senior Allison Huang continued to thwart the Chargers.

Northwood then scored with less than 10 minutes remaining in the match. After a corner kick from senior Carly Singer landed in the middle of the box, El Toro was unable to clear the ball and junior Morgan Jardon fished it out in heavy traffic and blasted a hard line drive past Chargers goalie Katherine Snyder and into the net.

But the Timberwolves were unable to keep El Toro’s offensive attack from tying the match late in regulation. After Daniels beat the Timberwolves defense, her shot was partially blocked by Smith, however, the rebound bounced to Nare, who fired a shot from directly in front of the goal into an empty net.