Press Enterprise Girl's Soccer Photo Gallery
BY MIRJAM SWANSON
STAFF WRITER [email protected]
MISSION VIEJO — In the program’s first CIFSS championship appearance Friday at Mission Viejo High, Hemet fell in penalty kicks, 6-5, after finishing regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods tied with San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s, 1-1.
“For most of the game we played a good brand of soccer, it was just a really even game,” Bulldogs coach Craig Dwinnell said. “I don’t think I can be too upset with how the girls played, I’m very proud of them. When you go all the way to the sixth PK, it’s just brutal.”
The Tartans, swift, tall, and aptly tougher than any opponent Hemet (23-3-2) had seen in the postseason, claimed their second consecutive Division 6 championship.
It took St. Margaret’s (19-4-4) applying incessant pressure on Hemet’s desperately determined defense, which allowed its only goal in the 21st minute, off a header by McKenna Marmelstein on a corner kick.
It took them disrupting the Bulldogs’ quick touches, and catching up with the jitterbugs up top, thwarting freshman and senior speedsters, Krista Haddock and Rosie Robinson.
Hemet’s only goal came on a penalty kick by Robinson four minutes before halftime, the first goal against the Tartans in 11 matches.
Robinson was leveled by a shot to the head, but with a potential third CIF ring on the line (to go with three volleyball championships), the petite forward refused to leave the match. Instead, she got to her feet and knocked home her 27th goal, setting the stage for the royal tug-ofwar that ensued over the following 60-plus minutes.
“It was a loose ball and I was running for it and she was running for it and our heads just hit real hard,” said Robinson, the tears dripping down her cheeks having nothing to do with the knot on her forehead.
“Kenzie (Boyd) was in my ear, ‘It’s your PK.’ I was a little dizzy, but I wasn’t going to pass up a PK, I had to take it. Thank God I made it.”
Finally, it took a nervethrashing penalty kick shootout, in which both sides made each of their first five attempts before senior standout Boyd, who’d been key all match fending off the Tartans, put one where St. Margaret’s goalkeeper Elliot Schwartz (nine saves) could get it.
“We wouldn’t have been in that situation without Kenzie on the field,” Dwinnell said. “But you can’t convince her of that right now.”
Stanford-bound Katie Donahue stepped up next and buried her attempt to start the party amongst the Tartans, who haven’t lost a shootout in three seasons, now 6-0 in that span.
“We tell (Schwartz) all the time, ‘Just one. Just make a save. We’ll make our kicks,’” Tartans coach Johnny Marlestein said. “And that’s what they did, it was huge.
“But that was a great Hemet team. All credit to Craig Dwinnell. And Rosie Robinson, what a player she is. And Krista Haddock and Nola (Prickett), they just had so many good players … you could see why they were the No. 1 seed.”