Girls Soccer: Glendora's big week starts with 4-1 win over South Hills; Baseline, Walnut next

Junior forward Amie Jepsen scored her 12th and 13th goals of the season. Nattali Molina and Tiffany Dimaculangan also scored and Alexandra Wilson chipped in with a pair of assists to help the Tartans improve to 9-2-3.

"Just for our confidence it was important to get a win, though I do not think we played all that well," said Tartans first-year coach George Sipa, also a well-known trainer on the club-soccer circuit. "We were just in the (North Orange County Classic) and played well. We showed we can compete against quality teams, but we know what's coming next.
"Although I'm familiar with a lot of players, I'm not as familiar with the high school scene. I'm kind of new to this and everyone is telling me how tough our league is going to be. But let's do it, we've got four games in five days so we'll find out where we're at."

South Hills (3-5-2) struggled offensively in December, a reason the Huskies bunkered up and countered throughout against the more skilled Tartans.

It worked to perfection for Huskies junior forward Andrea Madrigal, who scored the goal of the match on a counter in which she froze two defenders, then gently poked a shot that fell under the crossbar for a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute.

The Tartans, on a tear with 56 goals in just 14 games, didn't wait long to draw even, Jepsen tying the score on a cross in the 16th minute.

The Huskies were hoping to keep it that way until half, then gave up a 37th minute goal to Dimaculangan, then Jepsen scored late in injury time just before the halftime whistle to make it 3-1.

"We knew what kind of team we were going up against before the game started,"
Huskies coach Scott Mocabee said. "Our game plan was simple, sit in and try to counter. It got us a goal early and almost got a couple others but they were just too strong for that to work forever.

"If we were down just 2-1 at half, we could have lived with that. But the third goal was a brack-breaker and left our girls' heads hanging. We tried to get them back up and believing, but it's tough against a team with as many weapons as they have."
Glendora also received a big effort from senior central defender Jessica Smetherman, who is headed to Cal State Fullerton but was injured most of her junior season.

All in all, Sipa was pleased. Sort of.
"They (South Hills) had speed and we need to do a better job against teams with speed," Sipa said.