By Clay Flower
FONTANA >> Steve Jennings has seen plenty of own goals.
But in 22 years on the sidelines, the Summit High School girls soccer coach had never witnessed something like he saw Tuesday.
In a wild-card game between two third-place teams, Summit walked away a 1-0 winner over Montebello, which scored an own goal in the 74th minute of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoff opener at Miller High School. The SkyHawks will take on Orange League champion Savanna in Thursday’s first round.
Arguably the team’s best player on Tuesday aside from her lone miscue, Montebello captain Liz Tinoco lifted an attempted pass to her goalkeeper too high and could only watch as it sailed over Destiny Almillo’s head and into the goal.
“I’ve been coaching high school soccer here in Fontana since 1992 and I have never had a goal scored like that,” Jennings said. “I’ve had own goals where our girls hit it and it bounced off someone, but not where their team intentionally put it back to the goalie and it goes in. That was quite a freaky moment.”
PIONEER 70, PACIFICA/GARDEN GROVE 55
WHITTIER — For the second year in a row the Pioneer High boys basketball team has advanced to the second round of the CIF-SS Division 3A playoffs, rallying on Wednesday to defeat Pacifica of Garden Grove 70-55 before a packed crowd.
Pioneer (19-8) will play at No. 4 seed Esperanza, an 82-43 winner over Adelanto, on Friday.
The celebration started before the game as the game announcer introduced the Titans as the Del Rio League Champions, their first title in 44 years.
But,Pacifica (12-15) stole the show in the opening quarter by taking a 23-14 lead. It was all downhill from there for the Mariners as Pioneer, which advanced to last year’s quarterfinals, outscored Pacifica 37-19 over the next two quarters to take a nine-point lead heading into the final quarter.
“They (Pacifica) kind of picked apart our man-to-man defense in the first quarter,” fourth-year Pioneer coach Gregory Gilmore said. “Once we switched over to our zone defense, that’s when they struggled.”
The Pioneers’ two leading scorers, senior forward Joshua Valdez (21 points, six rebounds) and senior forward Teran Massengill (18 points) each had 13 points in the second and third quarters.
— John Sherrard
TUESDAY’S CIF-SS PLAYOFF RESULTS
GIRLS SOCCER
DIVISION 6
WILD-CARD ROUND
Summit 1, Montebello 0