Girls Soccer: Tologs-Esperanza Battle in Semis

For Flintridge Sacred Heart co-coach Frank Pace, the Tologs’ semifinal match Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Esperanza boils down to one thing.

The girls’ “second and third effort,” Pace says, will determine who moves on to the CIF-Southern Section Division I girls soccer championship game against the winner of Tuesday's other semifinal between San Clemente and Santa Margarita.

By that Pace means his players must not just assume the first play will be enough to get the job done. It'll take more than one clear attempt to get the ball away from danger, and more than one shot to get a goal. The team the best attacks loose balls and crashes the goal for possible rebounds will likely be the squad that comes out on top.

“We’re going to have to beat them to 50-50 balls,” Pace said.

The Tologs had better be ready to hustle in those situations, the Aztecs have shown a knack for scoring opportunistic goals this postseason. 

In their 1-0 win over Mission Viejo in the quarterfinals, the Aztecs scored game's lone goal when A.B. Ogiamien got her foot on a loose ball and put a shot past the keeper.

Esperanza (22-2-5) is the defending Division I champion and has record three consecutive 1-0 wins to open the playoffs. The Aztecs are also currently riding a 19-game unbeaten streak.

“They’re an excellent team,” Pace said.

Third-seeded Flintridge Sacred Heart isn’t a slouch by any means, however, and the Tologs have played some of their finest soccer of the season in the postseason.

The Tologs (19-1-1) put up eight combined goals in wins over Foothill and Tesoro, and they prevailed in penalty kicks in a tough second round match at Aliso Niguel.

“We’re playing well right now,” Pace said. “We’ve gone to another level in the playoffs. It’s tough to play 20-25 (regular season) games at the playoff level. During the season, there are days when you don’t get to that level. 

“ … We’re playing with the sense of urgency you need.”

As a result, the Tologs have enjoyed more success on the offensive end. Take away their zero goal result in Round 2, and they’ve been one of the more prolific scoring teams in the playoffs. It’s quite a turnaround from FSHA’s final game of the regular season, a 2-1 win over Chaminade, in which the Tologs had plenty of good looks at the net but struggled to put up quality shots.

“The missed chances, you can’t really do that in playoffs,” co-coach Kathy Desmond said at the time.

Now that doesn’t seem to be an issue. FSHA is scoring goals at a high clip, despite getting fewer chances than it did during the regular season. Pace said that the Tologs had between eight and 10 shots in the 3-1 win over Tesoro. There were times in the regular season when they’d have 20-25 shots in a game and only finish with two goals.

Pace didn’t offer up any tangible explanations for the high shooting percentage. He doesn’t think the Tologs are playing dramatically better on the offensive end right now — this is a team, after all, that had nine games of at least three goals during the regular season. And he didn’t buy into a theory that they’re just riding a hot streak.

“It’s similar to what we experienced last year in the playoffs,” Pace said. “We just started exploding with goals — I don’t really have an answer it. … Some of the shots that are hitting the posts before are going in.”