And so the struggle continues for Aptos following yet another early exit in the Central Coast Section girls soccer playoffs this past weekend.
The top seeded Mariners were stunned in a 2-0 loss to No. 8 Homestead in the Division II quarterfinals Feb. 22, cutting their season short in the opening round for a sixth consecutive time.
“We dominated the game, we just couldn’t put it in the back of the net,” Aptos head coach Gina Castañeda said. “It’s just heartbreaking. We had so many opportunities.”
As the referee blew the final whistle, several Mariners players were in tears realizing their season was all but over for them. Senior and team co-captain Anahi Macias, who received plenty of hugs from her teammates, was one of those players.
“At the end of the day, we all did our best, and we’re not going to put any player down because we know we played our best,” Macias said. “Every moment and every play that we did, we did what we thought was right in that moment. There’s no need to dread what happened, or what didn’t happen.”
Going into last weekend’s quarterfinals, Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion Aptos had outscored opponents 74-4 during the regular season. They won the possession battle throughout most of last weekend’s playoff match, keeping the ball inside of Homestead’s zone.
“As you can see we were on their half the whole time,” said Macias, who sat out in the final minutes of the match with a bloody nose after she took a ball to the face. “They just got lucky those few times they got over us. We should have just finished the ball, that was our main struggle.”
The Mariners had nine shots on goal against Homestead but they were held scoreless for the first time this season.
“I think they played more compactively because usually we get in through negative balls and we eat them up pretty quickly,” Macias said. “When you saw our wingers driving down the touch line, there were four or three people on it. They played a lot more defensively and compactly, and just parking the bus on us most of the time.”
Goalkeeper junior Myley Markley had 11 saves for the Mustangs.
“I’m really tired but also excited for the next round,” Homestead junior defender Emma Moser said. “Seeing as we were the No. 8 seed and we beat the No. 1, we’re all super excited. It was really unexpected.”
Moser said they watched tons of film in order to prepare for Aptos, which had already played Santa Clara Valley Athletic League rivals in Los Gatos and Mountain View.
“[Aptos was] just really fast on the wings,” Moser said. “I think their main strategy would just play it out wide, cross it in, but we just neutralized them.”
On the other side of the field, the Mustangs’ offense was able to expose a breakdown of coverage by Aptos.
After a scoreless first half, freshman Aubrey Phan received a pass on the outside and crossed it to sophomore Saara Lahtela for the goal, putting Homestead ahead at 1-0 in the 49th minute.
The Mustangs extended their lead to two scores following a goal by sophomore Neve Keren in the 74th. The assist was credited to senior Carlie Breiner.
Castañeda said the truth is they lost possession in the middle of the field and once that happened they couldn’t track back to support the defensive line.
“All season, we’ve been so dependent on them to just recover the balls for us and today it wasn’t like that,” Castañeda said.
Castañeda told the players prior to the match that all she wanted was for them to leave it all on the field no matter the outcome. And if they’ve done the work and dug deep, there’s nothing more she can ask for as the head coach.
“We’ll be in the same exact place next year,” Castañeda said. “And hopefully they learn and grow from this. We’re pretty young. Next year we’ll have some maturity. Hopefully we’re able to take this experience and learn from it, and then get past the quarterfinals, hopefully.”
Division III
The season came to an end for No. 8 Pajaro Valley following a 3-0 loss to the top seeded Menlo-Atherton in the Division III quarterfinals Feb. 22.
The Pacific Coast Athletic League Mission Division champion Grizzlies finished with an 18-2-2 overall record, and went 10-0-2 in league play this season.
Senior Valeria Acosta tallied a team-best 46 goals to go along with five assists, while teammate junior Scarlet Gomez led Pajaro Valley with 28 assists and had six goals.
