 | | | Kierra Krawec had five goals in the first round. | | | | | | As soon as the seeds for the NCS Division II girls' soccer playoffs were announced, a matchup between No. 1 Acalanes and No. 5 Miramonte seemed inevitable. On the other side of the bracket, No. 3 Campolindo also advanced to the semifinals.
On Feb. 25, Acalanes and Miramonte are slated to face off in the semifinals after both teams cruised through the opening rounds of the playoffs.
"I knew we'd see them again," said Acalanes head coach Evan Sassano. "This is the stage where we want to perform. When you play a team like Miramonte, you want to step up your game."
Mohamed Mohamed, the head coach of the Mats, shares the same sentiment.
"I strongly feel we are peaking at the right moment, and everything is coming together," said Mohamed. "We feel that we should be a contender for the title and we look forward to it."
For Acalanes, the playoff journey began on Feb. 18 with an 8-1 beat down on El Cerrito. In that rout, freshman Kierra Krawec collected five goals, while sophomore Caroline Clark added a couple of strikes and sophomore Katharine Larson also got on the score sheet.
On Feb. 21, Acalanes took down Las Lomas 4-1. Clark and senior Katharine Torchio both scored while Krawec once again had a big night as she grabbed a pair of goals and also contributed an assist.
"She's very, for a lack of a better word, 'industrious,'" said Sassano. "She works hard. She has a nose for the goal, and she's not flashy but she scores a lot of goals."
Miramonte has a goal-scoring machine of its own in Cecilia Gee. The senior was responsible for all four goals in the Mats' 4-1 win over Northgate on Feb. 18.
"She was exceptional in that game," said Mohamed. "We had an exceptional game against Northgate. We controlled the game very well and we created a lot of chances and we scored some beautiful goals."
On Feb. 21, Miramonte topped Alhambra 2-0 on the road, sending the team on to the semifinals.
Campolindo is also still alive in the NCS playoffs and could end up facing one of its Lamorinda neighbors in the finals. First, the Cougars will have to get past St. Mary's on Feb. 25.
On Feb. 18, Campolindo stormed past Concord 5-0, as junior Bailey Yuen and senior AJ Morgan both chipped in a couple of goals.
"I think that's every coach's dream start-to be able to come put up with a good performance and set the tone for what's about to come," said head coach Ernesto Silva.
The Cougars followed up that showing by defeating Piedmont 2-0 on Feb. 21 in the semifinals. Morgan once again found the back of the net, while sophomore Melissa Wilson also scored in the first half.
"I feel we dominated the game," said Silva. "So I think we handled it the way we planned it."
With either a win or a tie in nine of the team's past 11 contests, Silva knows the Cougars are trending in the right direction as crunch time approaches.
"The second half of the season we have really come alive. We have scored more goals in the last few games than we did pretty much the entire first three-quarters of the season. So, we like where we're at. We're getting better and better and I think it's the right time."
|
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA