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The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
When you’ve waited almost 30 years for your first playoff win, what’s another couple hours in the rain?
The Cabrillo Jaguars played a scoreless 80 minutes, then a pair of overtime periods against visiting Arrowhead Christian, until Wednesday’s first round match in the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs finally went to penalty kicks.
After six rounds of PK’s, the teams still remained even, until a save from senior goalie Stephanie Salgado ended the game in Cabrillo’s favor. The Jags survived with a 5-4 win on penalties, cementing history and setting off a boisterous celebration on the Westside.
“We’re just very excited to be here and I’m so proud of this group, who has just been fighting their way, crawling their way through,” said Cabrillo head coach Adriana Santillan after the win. “This is history for the school, we’ve never been to the second round, so this is awesome. Especially with this group of seniors who have had such inconsistency and worked so hard in the last four years. To have this be their senior year, I’m so excited for them. I’m so happy for them.”
Cabrillo thought they’d won the game during overtime, when sophomore forward Kamora Lee Byther jumped on a rebound from a free kick and put the ball in the back of the net. Unfortunately, offsides was called on the play, much to the frustration of the Jags fans in attendance.
Still, the Jags were able to lean on their experienced back line in front of Salgado to keep an impressive clean sheet for nearly two hours of game time. Santillan gave credit to her leaders defensively, who kept the Jags in the game until the final save of the night.
“The four of them in the back were awesome, but specifically Maralyn (Marquez) and Joally (De La Rosa), my two center backs,” Santillan said. “Just constantly working off each other, communicating with the rest of the field and Steph (Salgado) being such a rock for the back four and guiding them through it all.”
Nerves were high in the penalty shootout as both teams missed their first attempts before settling in for a run of makes. Marquez’s conversion in the do-or-die stage put the pressure on Arrowhead Christian to score, but Salgado was able to come up with the winning save, diving slightly to her right with strong hands to send the Jags to round two.
Santillan said the team didn’t have much experience taking penalties, and things didn’t exactly look great in yesterday’s practice session. But when the lights were bright and history was on the line, the Jags came through when it counted.
“We worked on it very briefly yesterday, but I don’t think we’ve ever really taken PKs,” admitted Santillan. “We took one PK in the run of play against Jordan, but other than that, this is not a team that is used to going to PK’s. And also, yesterday’s PK’s at practice were not, they were not this … So being able to power through that nervousness is awesome for them.”
Cabrillo will look to keep their historic run going on Friday in the second round. The Jags will travel to play unbeaten Azusa (16-0-4) after their 2-0 victory in round one.
