Will Lester/Staff Photographer
Claremont High School goal keeper Amanda Garvin makes a save in the first half of the Wolfpack’s 2-0 victory on Saturday over defending champion La Puente Bishop Amat in the CIF-SS Division 3 title game.
The loss column wasn’t the only place the Claremont High School girls soccer team ended the CIF playoffs with a zero.
The Wolfpack didn’t allow a goal in the postseason, a feat all the more impressive considering goal keeper Amanda Garvin’s performance in Saturday’s 2-0 win over La Puente Bishop Amat in the CIF-SS Division 3 championship game at Mission Viejo High School.
Garvin made seven saves including several of the spectacular variety in the first half as Claremont held off multiple flurries by a defending CIF champion Bishop Amat team that entered the game with 13 goals in four playoff games. The third-seeded Wolfpack (27-1-4) won its first CIF title since prevailing over Mission Viejo in the 1999 Division 1 title game.
“It’s so surreal to win this,” Garvin said. “You’re so nervous until you get that first shot on you. My defense was amazing in front of me. The entire season they were so strong.”
While Garvin was sprawling for amazing saves in the first half, the Claremont back line of Ariana Holmes, Taylor Fortson and Haley Arft were virtually impenetrable in the second.
Claremont reached the CIF final courtesy of a pair of 1-0 victory over Sierra League foe St. Lucy’s in the semifinals. Bishop Amat (17-4-4), the No. 4 seed after finishing second in the Del Rey League to second-seeded Lakewood St. Joseph, prevented an all-Sierra League final by handily defeating Chino Hills in the semifinals.
For all her defense in the playoffs, it was Fortson, ironically, who provided Claremont’s first goal when the towering fullback leaped above the crowd to head Marissa Telarroja’s corner kick inside the far post for a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.
Bishop Amat (17-4-4), which had perhaps its best scoring opportunity in the game’s first 15 seconds when a shot deflected off the crossbar, had two more in the closing minutes of the first half.
Garvin made a diving one-handed save moving to her right to deflect a free kick by Bishop Amat’s April Juarez in the 36th minute before a Juarez goal was disallowed in the 38th minute when it was ruled Garvin had possession of a rebound of her own diving save before Juarez booted it from her grasp into the back of the net.
“Nine out of 10 times April puts those in,” Bishop Amat coach Ruben Gonzalez said. “If we even get one in I think that changes the game.”
It was Claremont getting all the chances in the second half, including Merin Arft’s goal that found the corner less than four minutes after halftime on a brilliant feed to the middle from Rebekah Evans as she was falling down at the corner of the box.
Claremont then packed it in on defense, not that the back line needed any assistance.
“They’re not only physically dominant,” Claremont coach Tim Tracey said of his defense, “but they have the stature as well. We were able to win in the air because we have the height.”
