Chatsworth Girls Repulse Birmingham, Reach Final

Each time the Birmingham High girls’ soccer team thought it was climbing back into its City Section semifinal match against Chatsworth. . . .

Boom! Boom!

The Chancellors, winners of the past two City titles, put a quick end to the Braves’ uprising.

Birmingham twice scored to pull itself back into the match, and Chatsworth answered each time with a pair of quick goals, chilling the Braves en route to a 7-2 victory Wednesday at Chatsworth.

“We’re not used to being scored upon,” Chatsworth co-Coach Steve Berk said. “Usually when we are scored upon, we score within the next two minutes.”

When Birmingham forward Erin Saltzman slipped a head shot between goalkeeper Maggie Sherman’s hands to tie the score, 1-1, after 10 minutes in the first half, Chatsworth scored twice in the next six minutes to take a 3-1 advantage.

Chancellor forward Erin Barry scored the first of her two goals from 18 yards one minute after Saltzman’s goal. Five minutes later, Daisy Sudparid scored from the right flank for the only other goal Chatsworth (16-0) would need.

Heather Gorman fortified Chatsworth’s lead, 4-1, on a free kick from 30 yards with two minutes left in the half.

“They are just so quick off the line,” Birmingham Coach Buck Weber said of Chatsworth’s offense. “One of the biggest problems teams have with (Chatsworth) is that they aren’t as quick off the line.”

Birmingham (8-4-2) struck early in the second half. Kim Watzman directed a corner kick toward Saltzman, who deflected a head shot off Sherman and into the goal to trim the margin to 4-2 five minutes into the half.

Saltzman’s second score triggered Chatsworth’s next barrage.

Four minutes later, Kris Bassler fired a shot from 15 yards that caromed off goalkeeper Katrina Engel’s hands and into the net for a 5-2 lead. Barry’s second goal followed two minutes later.

Mary Oades, who scored Chatsworth’s first goal, recorded the Chancellors’ final goal at the 14-minute mark.

Chatsworth outshot Birmingham, 32-4, 18-1 in the second half.

Chatsworth will play San Pedro, a 1-0 winner over El Camino Real, in the championship match Saturday at Birmingham.