Girls Soccer: Physical Lancers Top Westridge in Wild Card Round

Within the first 10 minutes of Tuesday’s game, La Salle’s Taylor Mediano had to exit to the bench because of a bloodied nose. Players on both sides routinely collided into one another. There were multiple takedowns, and not even the goalies were immune from the physical play.

The game on the field might have been soccer, but a rugby-soccer hybrid would be a more apt description of La Salle's wild card matchup against Westridge in the CIF-Southern Section Division III playoffs.

The physical nature of the game suited the Lancers, who scored two goals in the first half en rote to a 2-0 win. La Salle moves on to a first round date at Suburban League champion La Mirada on Thursday at 3 p.m..

“The last couple of games we’ve been playing really well,” La Salle coach Edgar Manvelyan said. “We played really well — we had to be physical — and today it showed, especially in the first half. We gave it all, and we scored two goals.”

After a sluggish beginning, the Lancers (12-8-3) took control of the game. They dominated the Tigers in terms of possession, shots and aggressive play on the pitch. The Lancers weren’t afraid to mix it up while battling for the ball, and two La Salle players were issued yellow cards for physical play in the first half.

It was as if the Lancers had decided that Westridge (7-7-3) was the perfect target for their fury over a perceived snub when the CIF-SS brackets were released Monday.

“I was kind of disappointed that we got the wild card game because we should not be here,” Manvelyan said.

Manvelyan suggested that the Lancers were placed in the wild card round because of their sub-.500 league Del Rey League record (3-4-1), but he felt the league’s tough reputation should have been enough to earn his team a first round draw. The league’s No. 2 finisher, St. Joseph (Lakewood), earned a first round home match. DRL champion Bishop Amat drew the No. 2 seed in the Division III playoffs.

“Just in the past years, our (league’s) so tough that any of our teams is winning the CIF, or in the finals, or in the semis,” Manvelyan said. “We always have one team that’s going far — or sometimes two — (and) just because of our record because we’ve been playing tough teams, and to get a wild card game.”

Initially, though, La Salle’s dominant play did not translate into goals. Senior forward Ashley Gasper had a great look at the net in the 10^th minute, but her attempt just barely sailed over the crossbar. La Salle had a number of other chances early in the game, yet time after time the shot ended up wide of the goal.

In the 24^th minute, the Lancers finally managed to get one past Westridge keeper Cornell Banta when senior Samantha Whitehead headed in a ball off of a broken play to give La Salle a 1-0 lead.

Whitehead’s goal didn’t cure the Lancers’ shooting woes, as La Salle continued to fumble opportunities to put the game out of reach. 

“We’re lacking a little bit of offense,” Manvelyan said. “We don’t have that true striker that’s going to give me more than 10 goals this season so we try to move up (Whitehead) from the middle to forward this year. We try to rotate it up, just to try to get some offense.”

La Salle’s second goal came in the 39^th minute, after the Lancers won a penalty when Banta crashed into a Lancer forward while going after a loose ball.

La Salle senior midfielder Whitney Tashiro beat a diving Banta with a shot to the top-left quarter of the net.

“I think that was the changing point in the game was the penalty,” said Westridge coach Russell Finch, who hoped to go into halftime down just 1-0. “It was discouraging to say the least.”

The Tigers came out a different team in the second half and quickly put pressure on Lancers goalie Cassidy Rey. Westridge nearly got on the board in the 47^th minute when the Tigers peppered Rey with multiple shots on goal. But the third and final shot of the series hit the left post and harmlessly rolled across the goal and out of bounds for a goal kick.

Now the Lancers move on to face La Mirada, who Manvelyan admittedly isn’t very familiar with. But that's not a concern. Given the Lancers' difficult league schedule, Manvelyan isn’t intimidated by any matchup.

“Our league is so tough that I don’t care who I go against,” he said. “We can play against anyone.”