Sports

Girls Soccer: Hillman's Goal Carries San Marino into Quarterfinals

Hillman comes off the bench to score game's lone goal.

For the first 34 minutes of Tuesday’s second round playoff match, Sierra Vista had an answer for everything San Marino wanted to do offensively.

If the Titans tried to funnel the ball down the left sideline to star senior Annie Wenzlau or freshman Hayley Thompson, there were at least two Don defenders there on the backline to cut off any run. Wenzlau constantly faced multiple defenders whenever she crossed midfield, Thompson couldn’t get behind the defense and sophomore Hope Welder was relegated an offensive non-factor.

So with the Titans needing an offensive spark, San Marino coach Jaime Acuna turned to his bench. In the 35th minute, freshman Alana Hillman beat Sierra Vista goalie Alyssa Lozano with a 30-yard laser of a shot that snuck inside the near-post to lead the Titans to a 1-0 win over No. 4 Sierra Vista.

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San Marino moves on to the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division VI girls soccer playoffs on Thursday.

“It was a big shot on her part. We need a little spark off the bench and she definitely gave us what we needed,” Acuna said. “She’s one of those players that can come in and make things happen. And we look for her to come in and do exactly that, and it’s what she did today.”

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Acuna said he thought Lozano was a little bit out of position on Hillman’s goal. Hillman, on the other hand, had a different explanation.

“I think I just hit it too hard for her,” she said.

It’s understandable if Hillman’s shot caught the Sierra Villa keeper off guard, as up to that point of the game the Titans hadn’t really put any threatening shots on goal.

Any promising runs that San Marino (16-3-2) had were immediately snuffed out by a disciplined Sierra Villa defense. The Montview League champion Dons rarely found themselves out of position defensively, and they were prepared to handle the Titans’ left-oriented attack.

“They’re a good defensive team,” Acuna said. “They played hard. They were ranked so they had to live up to their ranking and they did that.”

With the Dons stymieing any attack along the left sideline, Acuna adjusted his offensive tactics midway through the first half. The Titans began pushing the ball toward the right side of the field, and suddenly there were gaps in the Dons defense for the Titans to exploit.

“We kind of made a little change on the right side to open things up,” Acuna said. “We put a little speed out there and were able to find some gaps and expose their weakness.”

Hillman was one of those players inserted on the right side, and she said that while she was on the bench she noticed similar openings in the defense.

“There were a lot of gaps in the defense,” Hillman said. “They were only playing with three (defenders), so we could pass around and go through them pretty easy.”

Sierra Vista (19-3-1) nearly got back into the game right after halftime, but Titans goalie Carlee Beckler made a leaping save in the 44th minute to preserve the shutout. Sierra Vista had a couple other promising scoring chances in the second half, but each time the Titans were able clear the ball out of danger.

Hillman nearly doubled the Titans lead in the 69th minute when she hit the crossbar with another powerful shot, and a few minutes later Alex Schuster had a shot of her own clang off the crossbar.

San Marino outshot Sierra Vista 15-5.


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