In a driving rainstorm that did no let up much all day, Sierra’s Sutton Denny nailed the decisive penalty kick for a 2-2 (3-2, PK) win over Ripon to claim the championship in the Vern Gebhardt Cup on a very soggy field at Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium.
“I was shaking in my boots as I was walking up to take the PK,” Denny said. “In the earlier game I had taken two and missed them both.
“After I got up there the ref said to me, `It’s up to you. If you make this your team wins.’ So I laid the ball down and told myself to trust my skills. I have been playing for 14 years, so I know what to do. I set the ball down and took a deep breath and let it go.”
Timberwolves goalie Annika Beall tallied two saves in penalty kicks to go with the two penalty-kick saves she made in the semifinal contest against Central Catholic.
“I was trying to get myself in the mindset of scratching the mistakes I have made and make every save as if it is a new game,” Beall said. “If I can do that I can make each shot its own.”
Weizemin Khan and Hailey Cruz posted the other two penalty kicks for the Timberwolves (6-1).
Cruz scored two goals for Sierra in regulation and Presley Perez had an assist. Beall posted eight saves.
“I am happy we got this win,” Sierra coach Manuel Pires said. “I wish we could have got it done without the PKs but it is what it is.
“My girls stepped up and took care of it in PKs and our goal was to win our first-place trophy and we did it. I am pretty happy.”
After Sierra took a 2-0 first-half lead, the Indians (7-3-1) narrowed the halftime deficit to 2-1 on a goal by Ariana Daniels assisted by Jaydin Kroutil. Olivia Maragos threaded the needle on a direct kick in the second half to tie the game at 2-2.
“We played excellent games in both games today,” Ripon coach Bryce Perkins said. “Our team showed that they could play at a level we knew they were at. I am so proud of the girls.
“They had a couple of rough games early in the season but today they played against two top teams in Gregori and Sierra and they showed they belonged. Taking out Gregori was pretty impressive and tying up Manuel (Pires’) team is no easy thing to do on any day.”
Ines Rodriguez and Makenna Pokorny tallied the two penalty-kick goals for the Indians. Ellena Parenti-Gomez posted seven saves.
Semifinals
Sierra 1, Central Catholic 1 (4-3)
Beall not only got two saves during penalty kicks, she blasted a goal kick deep to Cruz who got the goal for in the first half, giving an assist to the Timberwolves goalie.
Perez, Cruz, Khan and Lindsey Rose scored the penalty kicks for Sierra.
Ripon 4, Gregori 2
The semifinal tilt with the Jaguars from Modesto (5-2-1) – ranked 26th in the nation and first in California by Maxpreps – was a game of firsts for the Indians.
Maragos got Ripon on the board in just 24 seconds, eclipsing the previous fastest score in school history of 35 seconds. When Kaiya Kroutil scored a goal on an assist from her sister Jaydin Kroutil it was the first sister-combination goal since 2007 when Perkins’ daughters – Lindsey and Meredith Perkins – took the pitch for Ripon.
Maragos scored a goal for the Indians as did Katie Martin on a long arching shot via an assist from Makenna Pokorny.
Parenti-Gomez posted seven saves.
Buff Cup
Manteca 8, Los Banos 0
Cami Silva drilled five goals and dished out two assists for the Buffaloes in a semifinal win over the Tigers.
Alexia Alva, Serenity Cerritos and Mackenzie Forsberg added a goal apiece for Manteca (7-0-1) with Alva, Cerritos and Hasmeet Sahi each chipping in an assist. Haylie Brasil posted five saves in her clean-sheet effort.
“We came out early and jumped all over them,” Buffaloes coach Justin Coenenberg said. We had three goals in six minutes and then we could move girls around and get a lot of girls playing time.
“Our goal was to keep girls fresh for the final but that didn’t happen.”
Lathrop and Los Banos were preparing to play for third place when the coaches and referees got together and decided not to play the game, both for the field conditions and the fact the two teams were playing each other Monday in Western Athletic Conference play. They could decide the consolation title then.
Central Valley of Ceres, Manteca’s opponent in the championship game, was nowhere to be found when the third-place game was cancelled, so the Buffaloes and Central Valley will arrange a time to make up the first-place game.
