Marina girls’ soccer shuts out Webb, advances to CIF Division 3 quarterfinals
Among soccer’s more prevalent adages is that chances not taken will come back to bite you, and it offered an alarm of sorts for Marina High’s girls after their dominance in the first half of Friday afternoon’s CIF Southern Section playoff showdown with visiting Claremont Webb provided nothing.
The Vikings took care of that quick enough, scoring from the second-half kickoff and adding another not quite a half-hour later to cruise into the Division 3 quarterfinals with a 2-0 triumph far more outsized than the scoreline suggested.
Samantha Esparza tapped home Kendall Crosby’s feed through the goalmouth 24 seconds into the second half, Izzie Krysinski tallied from Kayden Smith’s cross in the 67th minute and the Wave League champions denied Webb superstar striker Abbey Cook the ball nearly the entirety of the match to set up a Valentine’s Day date at Chino Hills Ayala (10-5-4). The Bulldogs won 5-4 on penalties following a scoreless draw with Rancho Cucamonga.
“I don’t think any coach thinks, ‘We’ll just come out, kick off and score,’” Marina head coach Heath Oberle said. “It did help some of the nerves.”
The Vikings’ aggressive midfield play, terrific off-the-ball running, expert recovery following turnovers and dominance in winning first and second balls — Webb head coach Malick Mbengue called them “probably the fastest team we’ve seen all season” — prevented Webb (15-2-2), featuring most of the key figures from last year’s Southern Section Division 6 and SoCal Regional Division V title runs, from creating much of an attack.
Center backs Erika Torrez and Kiera Miskelly blanketed the Penn-bound Cook, who struggled to find the ball, locate space and penetrate and couldn’t add to her prodigious goal-scoring totals: 40 this season, 140 in three years. Torrez was in most of the head-to-head battles, winning most of them and slowing down the 2022 Division 6 Player of the Year when she didn’t.
“Erika’s a very aggressive player, and what she’s done great over the season is contain that aggression, so it’s like a controlled chaos,” Oberle said. “She did a great job just shielding that attacker and not giving her any easy opportunities. It was very clear that anything [Cook] got, she was going to have to earn.”
Marina (9-7-5) outshot the Gauls, 23-3, and didn’t surrender a shot until two minutes after Esparza’s goal, with goalkeeper Taylee Vo diving to snag Valeria Gonzalez’s shot through traffic from the debris of a midfield free kick. Webb were at a disadvantage after midfielder Ella Garcia, an All-CIF pick last year, suffered a head gash and possible concussion in a sixth-minute head-to-head collision with Esparza. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The Vikings twice hit the crossbar — Smith hitting the underside midway through the first half and Krysinski kissing it with about seven minutes to go — and created nearly two dozen legitimate scoring opportunities. The central figure was Krysinski, who teamed with Aspen Castillo to win balls in midfield, then led the attack forward, opening space on the dribble and sending attackers, often Smith, into dangerous locales. It led to nothing concrete in the first 40 minutes.
“We were there in [Webb’s half] the whole, entire time, so we had to repeat the energy and go out hard in the second half,” said Krysinski. “It’s not like we blow out teams that often, but we knew it was coming.”
The Vikings made a few tweaks at the break, designed to forge more impactful possession.
“[We talked about] settling the game down and finding that balance between playing quickly but not playing rushed,” Oberle said. “Get the ball moving, and then when we isolate them [one-on-one], we want to attack. They just didn’t have the confidence when they’d get the [one-on-ones in the first half], and as soon as we did that, things turned around for us.”
It happened so quickly. Right back Giana Ortenzo sent a long ball toward the box, and Crosby found Smith toward the right corner, then sprinted toward the goal to put away Smith’s low return into the goalmouth. Webb pushed forward after falling behind and Cook came close once, forcing a Vo save in the 66th minute, but was more dangerous with five long throw-ins into Marina’s box.
Krysinski settled things moments after Cook’s attempt, burying a shot from the right after collecting Smith’s pass and beating a defender.
The shutout was the Vikings’ 10th of the season and sixth in the past eight games. They’ve conceded just six goals in 12 games since New Year’s.
“They’re not giving up goals. Lots of clean sheets and they just work hard, and you can’t ask for more as a coach,” Oberle said. “We’re starting to believe in ourselves more. I think we had a bit of an inferiority complex for a little bit, and we just didn’t think we were that good. Every game we win, they’re seeing maybe we are pretty good. That belief keeps growing.
“It’s a great group, and if we play well, I think we’re going to be very difficult to beat the rest of the way through.”
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