By Eric Terrazas, SGVN
twitter.com/WhittierPreps

La Serna High School clinched its ninth consecutive Del Rio League girls soccer crown with a 2-0 win over El Rancho on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Hernandez scored both goals for the Lancers, who improved to 17-2-4 overall, 8-0-1 in league and now can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“The second half of the league season was tough,” La Serna coach Tessa Troglia said. “Now we’re playing good soccer. The girls have really stepped up and we have been playing as a team.”

Key players for the Lancers include forward Moriah Earley, goalkeeper Penny Roman, midfielders Michelle Reed and Jordan Sanders, and defenders Danielle Telles and Alex Kidd. Earley, Roman, Sanders, Telles and Kidd are seniors while Reed is a sophomore.

Earley has a team-high 14 goals. Reed and sophomore Natasha Ortiz each have eight.

Hernandez, a sophomore, has six goals and Sanders has five goals.

The Lancers end their regular season today at home against Pioneer at 3:15 p.m. La Serna then will direct its attention to next week’s CIF-Southern Section Division 5 playoffs. The pairings will be announced Monday.

“We’re preparing for CIF and hopefully we can make a run for a championship,” said Troglia, whose Lancers are ranked No. 1 in the latest division poll. “We strive to be as dynamic as possible. We use a different combination of girls. We try to be as unpredictable as possible.