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Santa Ynez breaks Cabrillo

By Brad Memberto / Sports Writer / bmemberto@syvnews.com

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Santa Ynez’s Kaci Mexico shoots and scores the winning goal with Cabrillo’s Jennifer Rangel trailing on the play during LPL girls soccer action. Both teams entered the game undefeated in league play. The win gives Santa Ynez the advantage in the title race, with a showdown against St. Joseph set for Thursday.

In a tough defensive battle, it came down to one break.

With the St. Joseph girls soccer team watching in the stands, Kaci Mexico broke free behind the defense in the 55th minute and scored the only goal of the game, as Santa Ynez defeated Cabrillo

1-0 in a big Los Padres League matchup at Cabrillo High Thursday afternoon.

The Pirates improved to 4-0 in the LPL, and will play St. Joseph Thursday, while the Conquistadores fell to 3-1. Cabrillo plays St. Joseph today.

It was a tight match throughout, before the Pirates broke through. In the first half, the Cabrillo defense was able to slow down the prolific Santa Ynez offense.

“Man for man we can’t match up with them offensively, but we know who their shooters are,” Cabrillo coach Derrick Wong explained. “We know who we want to deny which runs the game plan — I thought we executed it, then it came down to one.”

A team that utilizes its team speed to set up scoring opportunities, Santa Ynez struggled on the natural grass field early.

“We were never really able to establish a good possession game,” said Santa Ynez coach Rob Cantrell. “We play on turf, so when we come here ... Cabrillo definitely plays to their country.

“This field is probably in the best shape it’s been in many years, because they rested it a month — when you make the transition from turf to natural there’s always going to be a touch issue, so Cabrillo does a great job pressuring.”

In the first half, the Pirates had several quick rushes and made Cabrillo goalkeeper Kristina Goodchild make six saves.

“Kristina is a rock back there,” Wong said. “She’s been a lot more vocal getting her defense organized in front of her and getting the team going.”

Goodchild was aided in front by her defense, which made Santa Ynez shoot before it wanted to several times.

“They forced us to shoot pretty much the entire game from outside the box,” Cantrell said. “All of our shots were from 20 yards out.

“She (Goodchild) is a decent goalkeeper and you are not going to be able to score many goals on her from that distance.”

The Santa Ynez pressure increased in the second half as Goodchild made nine more saves, several in one-on-one conditions.

After the Santa Ynez goal, Cabrillo began to push the play, trying to get the game equalizer.

“We didn’t quit and we pressed in the closing minutes,” Wong said. “We have to bring that into next Tuesday (today) with St. Joe, because we are going to have to bring the same kind of mentality and game plan against them.”

Cantrell was pleased with his team’s defense during the game.

“I thought we put out a real solid effort and that’s not just our back line, but our midfield too,” Cantrell said. MacKenzie Mexico did a fantastic job at center-back for us today - she’s real composed and I really enjoy having her play that position.”

Even with the loss, Wong was upbeat about how his team has performed so far in league.

“We’re 3-1 and I’ll take 3-1 right now,” he said.

“If we can go get St. Joe, and Santa Ynez has to play St. Joe, then a week from now we’ll be talking again and we’ll all be tied up again.”

January 19, 2009