Lady Warriors reach girls soccer CIF Division IV semifinals

Fallbrook High School's girls soccer team reached the CIF Division IV semifinals.

The Warriors began post-season action with a 2-0 home victory against Castle Park in the Feb. 26 quarterfinals and were eliminated from further competition when Southwest High School of South San Diego defeated the Warriors in a 2-1 semifinal match March 1 in Fallbrook.

"It was a good run. It was a good experience for a lot of our girls," said Fallbrook coach Miguel Trejo.

The Warriors had a regular-season record of 14-5-4 including a 5-3-2 mark in Valley League play which was worth third place in the final six-team standings. The CIF playoff selection and seeding meeting Feb. 20 gave Fallbrook the #1 seed in the Division IV playoffs.

Twelve teams were selected for the Division IV playoffs, so the top four seeds including Fallbrook received first-round byes. "It helped us out in the fact that it allowed us to recover from some injuries," Trejo said.

The home playoff game against Castle Park was the first for Fallbrook since the 2007-08 Warriors defeated Granite Hills in the CIF Division I quarterfinal, so the team had the opportunity to play in front of Fallbrook fans. "I'm happy that we were able to give them a victory for our quarterfinal game," Trejo said.

The Warriors scored once in each half. Jocelyn Urbina had an unassisted first-half goal. In the second half Karina Bulli converted a pass from Audrey Petersen into a score. Fallbrook goalkeeper Precious Garcia made five saves against the Trojans with defenders Petersen, Lilly Durbin, Callie Eidson, and Angelina Rojas also contributing to the shutout.

"It was a good experience," Trejo said.

"My girls played well. We dominated about a good 60 percent, 70 percent of the game," Trejo said. "We missed some opportunities to score, but I'll take two goals over nothing."

Fallbrook and Castle Park had previously faced each other Dec. 19 in the Lady Vaquero Classic tournament. The Warriors and Trojans played to a 1-1 tie during pool play, although a Castle Park tie against El Cajon gave Fallbrook first place in the pool and the Warriors eventually won the tournament's varsity bronze division championship.

The tournament game against Castle Park was the Warriors' second contest of the day, and due to injuries and Winter Break absences Fallbrook played both games with only 14 girls in uniform. "It was a whole different game," Trejo said of the playoff match.

Injuries also left Fallbrook with less than a full roster in the game against Southwest. "We were missing some key players, but that didn't stop us from playing our style," Trejo said. "A little mistake in the beginning cost us."

The Raiders scored in the third minute of the game when Fabiola Gonzalez converted a pass from Elena Perez. "That kind of woke us up," Trejo said.

Midway in the first half Bulli scored the equalizer with an assist from Hannah Diverde. The score remained 1-1 for most of the rest of the 80-minute game. "We missed our opportunities to put one in the back of the net and it came back to haunt us," Trejo said.

In the 79th minute, Perez passed to Sylvia Rojas, who placed the ball into the net for the winning goal. "They put that goal away when they needed to," Trejo said.

Southwest subsequently defeated Sage Creek in the final to win the CIF Division IV championship. "Can't complain. We lost to the champion," Trejo said.

Southwest was the fourth seed in the Division IV playoffs and Sage Creek was the second seed. The top seed has home field advantage through the semifinals (the championship game took place at Olympian High School), but Trejo noted that opponents can be motivated when they face the #1 seed. "That leaves a big mark on your back," he said.

The playoff results gave Fallbrook a final record of 15-6-4. "I can't complain," Trejo said. "We were a really strong team this year."

Fallbrook was in Division III for CIF playoff purposes during 2013-14. The Warriors lost to Pacific Ridge in the first round, but the post-season appearance was the first for Fallbrook since 2007-08, when the Warriors were seeded fourth in the Division I playoffs and followed their win over Granite Hills with a semifinal loss at Torrey Pines. Last year Fallbrook was in the Division IV playoffs and earned a 3-0 victory at Foothills Christian in the first round before losing by a 3-1 score to top-seeded Olympian in the quarterfinals at Olympian.

"This year we were able to advance to the semifinals," Trejo said. "It's like a bittersweet feeling getting that far."