FORTUNA — Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Don”t tell anyone but the No. 12 seeds in the 12-team North Coast Section Division III girls” soccer playoffs are just a win away from reaching the championship game.
The Clear Lake Cardinals won their second straight playoff game on Saturday, beating No. 4 seed Ferndale 2-1 in double-overtime in the quarterfinals at Fortuna High School. Clear Lake (11-10-3) also beat No. 5 seed Fort Bragg on penalty kicks after the teams battled 2-2 through two overtimes periods in opening-round action last Wednesday.
“So you have the 1, 2, 3 and 12 seeds in the semifinals,” Clear Lake co-coach Paul Larrea said of the four remaining teams.
Clear Lake plays No. 1 seed Sonoma Academy (17-2) in the semifinals Wednesday night at 5 p.m .at Santa Rosa High School. No. 2 St. Vincent (15-1) hosts No. 3 Middletown (17-1) in the other semifinal at 7 p.m. at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park. Winners advance to the championship game this Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
“We like our chances,” Larrea said. “We think we can play well against Sonoma Academy. We”ll play very hard and leave it all on the field.”
Sonoma Academy beat Clear Lake 6-2 on Sept. 12 in Lakeport.
Clear Lake and Ferndale were close to deciding their game in a shootout when Megan MacDonald”s corner kick late in the second overtime was knocked into the net by Chelo Lundquist-Krag, her first goal of the season.
“I”m not sure if she knocked it in with her shoulder or chest, but she deflected it into the net,” Larrea said. “There were about three minutes left in the second overtime.”
Until then, neither team had scored since the second half. Clear Lake went up 1-0 on Logan Brodnansky”s direct kick and Ferndale (7-8-1) tied it 10 minutes later on a penalty kick.
“She curled it under the crossbar,” Larrea said of Brodnansky”s goal.
Clear Lake lost senior defender Jessica Rentsch to a broken right leg in the first overtime, according to Larrea, who said Rentsch was kicked from the side by a Ferndale player. There was no penalty on the play.
“We have eight seniors who are very close and it was upsetting to them, but we held our composure,” Larrea said.
Jasmine Flores rep-laced Rentsch and acquitted herself well.
“She did a real nice job filling in,” Larrea said.
Clear Lake kept the Ferndale defense busy with 15 shots on goals.
“Our offense kept the pressure on them and that makes it easier to play defense,” Larrea said. “They really didn”t have any good scoring opportunity in the overtimes. We played well defensively all night.”
It was the first meeting between the two teams since 2006.
If the Cardinals can beat top-seeded Sonoma Academy, they will make their first trip to the section finals since 2003, when they fell 1-0 to St. Bernard of Eureka. They won the old Class A championship in 2001 with a 2-1 shootout victory against St. Vincent.
