CMS Soccer Beats Occidental to Clinch SCIAC Title
It was a windy Wednesday afternoon in Eagle Rock, CA when the CMS Athenas took on the Occidental Tigers. The Athenas started confidently as they possessed the ball and prevented the Tigers from gaining any offensive rhythm. But the momentum shifted in favor of the Tigers, who outshot the Athenas 9 - 2 in the first half. Despite the statistic, the CMS defense did a superb job of limiting Oxy's quality shots on goal by applying pressure and forcing them to shoot from long range. One close Tiger opportunity resulted from a direct kick that hit the cross bar and landed in front of keeper Camila Friedman-Gerlicz (SR, Santa Fe, NM) who calmly absorbed the Oxy shot taken off the rebound.
The wind and chill factor picked up at the start of the second half, but that only fueled the Athenas' fire to win. Seven minutes into it, Laura Hagen (JR, Bellvue, WA [pictured]) hustled to intercept an Oxy back pass to their keeper. Hagen's composed touches around the goalie put the Athenas up by one goal - the beginning of the CMS scoring onslaught. Julia Nishioka (SO, Honolulu, HI), after pulling a series of moves that left Tiger defenders staring, nailed a perfect pass to a running on Kirsten McAfee (JR, Albuquerque, NM) who rocketed a shot past the keeper for what would be the game winning goal. A mere five minutes passed until the Athenas struck again. This time, Junior Lizzie Van Buskirk (San Rafael) raced her defender to the end line and executed what the Athenas aptly call the "Pass of Death". Hagen positioned herself to receive this pass and beat the keeper with one touch for her second goal of the game. The offensive onslaught did not stop there. Michele Barnhill (SO, Paradise Valley, AZ) blazed up the midfield and played a perfect ball to Madi Shove (FR, Portola Valley) who cut her defender and took a solid shot out of the keeper's reach. Missing the net by inches, Shove's shot bounced off the right post and found Catherine Raney (FR, Belvedere) who effortlessly redirected the rebound into the open net for the Athenas' fourth goal. Oxy prevented a shutout loss by scoring in the 90th minute to end the game at a score of 4 -1. CMS improved to 11-2-2 overall and 9-0-2 in SCIAC while Occidental fell to 8-6 and 6-5.
The Athenas, who clinched the SCIAC title and the top seed in the SCIAC tournament with the win, will next take on Division III rival UC Santa Cruz on Friday night at 7:00 pm.
