By Steve Ramirez, Staff Writer
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Glendora High School didn’t win a pseudo CIF-Southern Section field hockey title. But the Tartans earned a pretty good consolation prize Thursday. Amy Sefton scored a goal and had three assists and Glendora scored a 4-1 victory over Fountain Valley in the third-place game of the Los Angeles Field Hockey Association Tournament of Champions at Edison High School. To continue, click thread
The Tartans, who also received goals from Lauren Gold, Emily Ortiz and Natalie Hernandez, finished 10-5-2. It was Glendora’s best finish since winning the tournament in 2005.
CIF-SS doesn’t sanction a championship in field hockey, but the winner of the TofC is recognized as the CIF-SS champion.
“We proved we could come back as a team,” Sefton said of her Glendora squad, which dropped a tough 3-0 setback to Newport Harbor in the semifinals on Wednesday.
“We showed we can fight strong. We just played really well and it was awesome. It was great to see us finish it off.”
The Tartans controlled the ball for much of the game and held a 22-9 advantage in shots.
Glendora took the early lead when Sefton dropped a pass to Gold, who beat Barons goalie Alex Capuano for a 1-0 lead with 17:39 to play in the first half.
“We played well today,” Glendora coach Leigh Morrison said.
“Some things kind of clicked for us. We passed the ball and used the whole field. We had some beautiful cross balls and it was kind of nice.”
The feeling got better in the second half when Ortiz made it 2-0 with 19:23 to play. Hannah Thurston started the break by driving down the side. She made a nice cross pass to Sefton, who then fed Ortiz for an easy tap-in. Sefton then made it 3-0 on a stroke, field hockey’s version of a penalty shot. Sefton had broken free in the scoring circle before being checked by Fountain Valley’s Nancy Mendez. Sefton then easily beat Capuano to the left side for the three-goal advantage.
“That’s fun to do,” Sefton said. “The first half we were a little flat and only had one (goal). But the second half, we came back strong. We worked hard, and put three more in. It was nice to see us produce like that.”
Fountain Valley had two decent chances to get back in it, but Tartans goalie Sara Hirakawa stopped two inside shots.
“We have a great goalie, but we also have a great defense,” Morrison said. “They played calm and got the ball out of there. They’ve done that a lot this year.”
Hernandez, getting a pass from Sefton, then made it 4-0 with 4:31 left to play. Ashley Woody then broke the shutout with less than a minute to play.
“Yesterday was a tough loss,” Morrison said. “But for our girls, especially the five seniors, to bounce back and lead like they did today was awesome.”
steve.ramirez@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2296
