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controlled pace.
It was a rout from the start when El Segundo
scored nine first-period goals. Avery
Torres, who scored three of her five goals
in the first quarter, ripped a steal away and
went the distance to score to make it 3-0.
Eagle goalkeeper Kendall Donahue had a
big say in the victory. She had five saves but,
more importantly, directed the offense with
her lead passes that led to five goals. Her
pinpointed long-distance passes overwhelmed
the Spartans. In the first period, she found
Alyssa Mullane and Stephanie Rodriguez on
back-to-back possessions for scores to make it
7-0. Rodriguez led all scorers with six goals
while Torres and Mullane each scored five
goals, Nicole Alpert chipped in two.
The Eagles went on the road and defeated
Notre Dame 17-7 in another matchup that
wasn’t that close. After a close first period,
El Segundo held a 5-3 lead. The defense
adjusted, and they shut out the Knights in
the second period and increased their lead
to 10-3. In the second half, freshman goalie
Kendall Donahue came up with seven of her
11 blocks, including two penalty blocks, and
had three assists by directing the offense
from the cage.
Emmie Ramirez had nine goals, Avary
Torres added a hat trick, Stephanie Rodriguez
added a pair of scores, and Sally Gonzales,
Cassia Cole and Nicole Alpert each scored
a goal. Girls Soccer Team Looks
Impressive in Loss
The Lady Eagles ran their winning streak
to eight straight with their 2-0 win over Torrance.
It was a game El Segundo controlled
on both ends. The defense used their speed
to shut down the Tartars while sophomore
goalie Tanner Ijams had four saves. Bella
Munoz scored both goals for the Eagles, one
in each half. The first one came as she was
in the right place in front of the goal and
took a rebound and hit it past goalie Kennedy
Turner. In the second half, Munoz crossed a
shot past Turner from 15 yards out to give
her team a 2-0 lead.
The winning streak ended with their 2-1
defeat to the West Torrance Warriors. It was
a hard-fought match pitting the defending
CIF champion Eagles against top-ranked and
the defending Pioneer League champions,
West Torrance.
The Warriors are an up-tempo team with
solid athletes. They push their offense while
limiting the opposition’s opportunities to score
on the defense. The Warriors controlled the
pace of play against the Eagles in the first
half and had eight shots on goal. Four went
over the net and Ijams saved four others.
El Segundo had a few opportunities to get
off shots on goal. Chelsie Charles pushed
one wide, Bella Munoz hit one over the net,
and two others were saved. The Eagles’ only
score came on a corner kick by Munoz, who
hooked one in from the right corner midway
through the first half. West Torrance countered
with a goal two minutes later on a rebound
inside to tie the match at 1-1.
The Eagles picked up their pace in the second
half and had the Warriors on their heels by
flipping the field and pressuring the Warriors’
defense. It was a vitalized El Segundo team
bent on upsetting the top West. The Warriors
had few opportunities to score in the second
half, thanks to El Segundo’s defensive effort.
With less than four minutes remaining, both
teams, the Warriors, had a corner kick that
went inside. During a scrum for the ball in
front of the goal, an Eagle defender mistakenly
kicked the ball off another defender, and the
ball rolled into the net for the Warriors. El
Segundo pushed the ball after the goal but
came away empty and fell 2-1.
Afterward, head coach Skip Jones addressed
his dejected team with some positives
that came out of the game. “You faced the
number one team and gave them all they
could handle. If there was any question of
how good you are today, you showed you
can play with anyone.”
The Eagles play their final home game
of the regular season on Friday at 3 p.m.
when they host South Torrance and honor
their 18 seniors.
Eagles Fall to West
El Segundo’s Pioneer League title hopes to
repeat were handed a blow with their 43-39
loss to West Torrance. It was a disappointing
loss for a team that played with all the
energy and motivation of knowing they were
essentially playing for a league championship.
It was a fast-paced game with both teams
attempting to control the tempo. The lowscoring
affair was a tribute to each team’s
defensive effort. West used a tough zone
while the Eagles pressured the Warriors
with a tight man defense. Ben Ali-Watkins’
three-pointer at the buzzer gave El Segundo
a one-point lead at halftime.
Neither team held much of a lead in the
second half, and there were seven lead changes.
The game’s defensive play came as the third
period was winding down. Eagle guard Jesse
Gutierrez was dribbling up the right side
and pressured West’s Amare Holmes when
he lost the dribble to Holmes. The Warrior
guard went the other way for an easy layup
when Preston Engle blocked the shot attempt
from the far end.
The Warriors took a seven-point lead in the
fourth quarter before Jack Pintens drained a
three-pointer to close the gap. The Eagles cut
the deficit to three points, but that’s as close as
they would come. The loss essentially means
the Eagles won’t repeat as league champions
in 55 years. The last time they repeated was
the 1966 and 1967 teams. The Eagles travel
to South Torrance on Friday and wrap up
their season next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Lady Eagles no Match for West Torrance
The Eagles are having a challenging season
and are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs.
Their lopsided loss to the West Torrance
Warriors in their Pioneer League opener fell
to 5-11 overall. The Eagles held a 5-4 early
first-quarter lead before West went on a 19-3
run to finish the quarter. Turnovers doomed
the offense that resulted in 13 first-quarter
points for the Warriors.
The offense was stymied in the second and
third quarters, and the Eagles fell behind by
29 points. Bo Takehara highlighted the fourth
quarter by scoring eight of her team’s 15
points. Nicole Ungaro led the Eagles scoring
attack with 10 points.
The Eagles play at South on Friday and
wind up their season at home next Wednesday
at 6 p.m. •
Annika Klishnevich controls a pass against Torrance in the Eagle’s
2-0 win.
Senior goalkeeper Nili Kovacs gets off a goal kick against
West Torrance; she had three saves.
Jesse Gutierrez plays tight defense against West Torrance’s
Daiki Narimoto. Nicole Ungaro #21 jumper scores against West’s Nicole Chuang.
Kendall Donahue helped direct the offense against South Torrance and Notre Dame.