Dec. 29, 2007
Lady Griffins claim first Excalibur Championship;
Santos, Griffin defense hold opponents scoreless throughout tournament
The Los Alamitos Griffins girls soccer team
ended the non-league part of its schedule on a good note, downing
Santa Margarita 1-0 to win the championship of the 17th annual
Excalibur Cup on Saturday afternoon at Foothill High.
Freshman forward Shannelle
Simien scored the game-winning goal, off a header assist from
midfielder Annie Wethe in the
47th minute of the 70-minute contest. During a scramble in front
of the net, Wethe directed a pass to the right of the goal and
Simien just beat the Santa Margarita defender to the ball and
drilled it past the Eagles keeper for the game's only score.
The win gave Los Al its very first Excalibur
Championship. They reached the finals in 2003, but tied San Clemente
and then lost in a shootout. They also improved their season record
to 9-3-4.
The Griffins earned a spot in this year's title
game by downing Tesoro in the semi-final match earlier in the
day. Senior midfielder Melanie
Greene scored in the opening minutes off an assist from sophomore
Ari Carillo. While the Griffins
controlled the match they couldn't put it away until Simien scored
the insurance goal late in the match.
 Santa
Margarita rallied to put intense pressure on Los Al in the last
twenty minutes of the match but the Griffin defense stayed steady,
led by keeper Jordan Santos
(left) -- who didn't allow a goal in the entire tournament and
has now turned in seven consecutive shutouts, and has only allowed
six goals in 16 games. Twice Santos made great saves in the final
five minutes to preserve the shutout. As she had all tournament,
Santos got great help from back-line defenders Jessa
Yukihiro, Shannon Ward and
Jazmyne Bacani. But much of
the Griffin defensive success can be attributed to the front-line
pressure that is a big part of new Los Al coach Steve Soler's
system.
Santos, Simien and Wethe were all named to
the All-Tournament
team.
As is often the case at this three-day/five
game tournament, the championship match is a contest between two
teams with very tired legs and lots of injuries. The Griffins
played the title game without starting defender Andi
Franco who injured her leg in the semi-final win over Tesoro.
Two other frequent starting defenders, Natalie
Ohishi and Jessica Kaub also
saw very limited action. Ohishi missed the entire tournament with
an off-the-field snow-related injury while Kaub missed the first
two days of play after going ten rounds with the Norwalk flu and
becoming close friends with porcelain fixtures. Despite losing
eight pounds, she turned in a strong first half of play in the
championship match.
Also missing in action from the title game
was head coach Soler who used the weak excuse of getting married.
The wedding date and plans had already been set in stone when
he was hired for the Griffin coaching job in late September. Assistant
coach Brent Whitfield called the shots in the title tilt as he
did during the late Thursday afternoon win over Dana Hills when
Soler was at his rehearsal. The final scores were being text-messaged
to Soler during his ceremony. Unknown is if the results were included
during the vows.
Los Al opened the tournament with a pair of
1-0 wins on Wednesday, over Canyon (of Anaheim) and Dana Hills.
Freshman Adriana Gjonovich
scored the game-winner in the first match off a nice Katie
Suits assist and Wethe -- who had an outstanding tournament
-- gave the Griffins the win over Dana Hills.
On Friday, the Griffins played El Toro to a
0-0 tie, but prevailed in the penalty kick shootout 3-0, with
Greer Wilk, Wethe and Yukihiro
scoring.
After playing the annual Alumni game on Monday
at 10am, Los Al will start preparing for its league season which
begins on Thursday against Fountain Valley. They also better put
their tourney win behind them, and focus on the future. Over the
past ten years, no team which has won the Excalibur has gone on
to win the CIF championship.
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