Going into the Feb. 28 Open Division Section championship, the San Marcos High girls soccer team had beaten Mt. Carmel four straight times, dating back to last season.
The fifth meeting proved the exception.
“I’ll be honest — we’ve pretty much dominated them,” San Marcos head coach Alex Ramirez said. “A lot of those scorelines look close, but usually we jump out to a three-goal lead, I clear my bench a bit, and they get a couple late goals to make it interesting. So we went into the game super confident. We know their playmakers; they know our playmakers.”
The championship battle remained scoreless through regulation and overtime before Mt. Carmel claimed the title with a 5-4 edge in penalty kicks.
Ellery Muren converted in the fifth round of the shootout to give the Sundevils the advantage, and goalkeeper Nina Hinchman sealed the win with a decisive save moments later.
Mt. Carmel’s defensive effort also kept San Marcos’ potent scoring duo of Josie Willis — the reigning CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year — and Emerson Obrist off the scoresheet. Willis entered the match averaging more than a goal per game.
“PKs are PKs,” Ramirez said. “They didn’t beat us in regulation and they didn’t beat us in overtime, so you have to tip your hat to them for making it happen when it counted. It’s really a coin flip. We had some film from their semifinal with Carlsbad, so our goalies and our goalie coach were game-planning for that. For our shooters, I just told them to pick their spot, be confident and don’t hesitate. At that point you take a deep breath, stay calm and see what happens. Whatever the result, I told the girls I was proud of them.”
San Marcos generated several quality scoring chances throughout regulation but couldn’t find the back of the net. In overtime, the Knights controlled much of the possession, creating opportunities, but yet again came up empty.
“In eight minutes of overtime, we were peppering their goal,” Ramirez said. “They were really just absorbing pressure, not trying to score, and countering when they could. Credit to them — they were successful.”
The biggest tactical difference from previous meetings came in how Mt. Carmel defended Willis, adjusting their approach to contain the Knights’ star scorer.
“They were really just man-marking our goal scorer, Josie Willis,” Ramirez said. “The defender on her did a great job — not taking her completely out of the game, but enough to keep her off the scoresheet. That’s something we’ve dealt with all year; when you have the reigning CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year, most teams try to slow her down. In this game, they were more physical and took tactical fouls, trying to disrupt her rhythm. It was a chess match — we tried flipping her across the field, and they’d adjust to follow her.”
San Marcos (15-6-4) entered the game with a chance to become only the second team in the Open Division era to repeat as Section champions, having defeated Bonita Vista in last season’s title match.
“For the returning players who had already reached that summit, there was some disappointment — they wanted that back-to-back championship, something only one other team has done in the Open Division era,” Ramirez said. “At the same time, those players recognized they made it back to the finals in consecutive seasons, which doesn’t happen often, so they were a little more accepting. The newer players — sophomores, juniors, and a few seniors who weren’t on last year’s team — felt more disappointment because they didn’t get that experience.”
San Marcos advanced to the Southern California State Regional Division I tournament but saw its run end in the first round. The Knights fell 5-0 to Mater Dei on March 3.
