Newport Harbor girls’ soccer bows out after second-round loss to Canyon
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This was going to be the year for the Newport Harbor’s girls’ soccer team.
Justin Schroeder assembled a hugely talented and bonded group, strong in every aspect, with an alignment and approach opponents find unfamiliar and unsettling.
It was, all agree, the best Sailors side since the 2019 CIF Southern Section quarterfinalists, probably better than that team, with tremendous possibilities.
It all ended Friday night when visiting Anaheim Canyon, a team they’d walloped two months earlier, exploded at the start, took Newport Harbor out of its game, then defended superbly under considerable pressure down the stretch to claim a 1-0 second-round victory and spot in the Division 1 quarterfinals.
“We’re crushed,” said midfielder Sadie Hoch, who had the Sailors’ two best chances to score, both in the final 15 minutes. “Every year it gets harder and harder. Freshman year, it’s just as hard losing the seniors. And then you never think this time is going to come when you’re a senior and you’re finally saying bye. I think every emotion that we’re feeling comes from how much we love each other and how much we love this program. And that’s a huge thanks to our coaches.
“The soccer part is just part of it. The main focus is to be a good person. They won’t put you on the team if you’re not a good person. Your attitude, your work ethic. It comes from so much more than just the soccer aspect. And that’s something that we all look forward to. I spent my whole club season looking forward to high school season, and then it’s here, and then it’s gone. It’s bittersweet.”
The Comanches (15-2-2), who will visit Mater Dei on Tuesday, built an effective game plan off of the 3-0 loss the second week of December. They neutralized Harbor’s midfield box at the center of an uncommon 3-2-4-1 formation by going direct, then applied high pressure everywhere on the field.
“I have to hand it to Canyon,” Schroeder said. “They knew what they wanted to do. They knew who they were, and they knew how to execute. And they absolutely did that and it made it difficult for us. Disappointing for us. Good for them.”
Ultimately, it came down to two plays, and neither went right for the Sailors (16-5-3).
The Comanches were in charge at the start, kicking the ball deep into space and forcing Harbor to defend in retreat. Caroline Hicks hit the crossbar in the sixth minute, the ball bouncing perilously close to counting. Then, in the 15th, freshman center back Sophia Gallacher served a long ball behind Harbor’s back line, and Ava Probst beat onrushing goalkeeper Audrey Burns to the ball.
An open net awaited.
Canyon paired five players against the Sailors’ midfield box while cutting off service to the wings to prevent crosses, and there was little space among the thicket of bodies. The Comanches absorbed pressure, allowing just three shots on frame into the 70th minute, two by Hoch and all right at goalkeeper Julia Fitzgerald.
“They blocked shots, they cleared the ball,” Schroeder said. “They didn’t clear it into people, they cleared it out. They didn’t clear it to us. They broke lines. They defended really well. Their keeper did a good job. She made the saves she needed to make. They defended our corners pretty well, which we’ve been pretty good on this year.
“I don’t know if that was by design or lack of execution on our part, but that was definitely something that hindered us, because we we tried to play through the middle of the field and there was just so many bodies in the middle of the field.”
The Sailors’ big chance arrived in the 70th minute, from a scrum in front of Canyon’s goal that wasn’t cleared. The ball fell to Hoch near the top of the 6-yard box at the right post, with a clear path to the net. A sliding Gallacher arrived just as she hit the ball.
“I think my heart stopped and everything went quiet,” Hoch said. “And I was like, this is the moment. Great defending on her part to stay with it.”
Schroeder called it “a great block” and the “game-saver.”
“Because if you’re going to defend the whole time and then you give up that goal, all the momentum is to us,” he said. “And I think if we got that equalizer, we’re going to probably find the second one, for sure.”
They had a last chance five minutes into stoppage. Hoch fired high on a free kick from the left a few yards above the box. It was over 45 seconds later.
“Most teams, the way CIF soccer works, they don’t end their season on a win,” Schroeder noted. “Most teams end on a loss, because it’s a knockout tournament. Definitely think we went out way too early.”
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