Villa Park girls soccer wins the battle with Redondo and advances to the semi-finals of Division 1 – Orange County Register

ORANGE — Villa Park overcame an early deficit and took a definitive lead in the 67th minute through Rylee Lewis’ goal to edge Redondo 2-1 in the quarter-finals of CIF-SS Division 1 girls’ soccer on Tuesday night at El Modena High.

The Spartans (17-2-4) will play Santa Margarita in Friday’s semifinals with a trip to the CIF SS Finals at stake.

“She just hit it perfectly, right in the top corner and had the right pace to get there,” Villa Park coach Breanna Carrillo said of Lewis’ goal.

Villa Park defeated Redondo 2-1 in the CIF-SS Div 1 Quarterfinals thanks to goals from Cindy Conner and Rylee Lewis. The senior duo hope to take the Spartans past the semi-finals where they meet Santa Margarita/San Clemente away this Friday. @ocvarsity pic.twitter.com/9o0XGcX6QY

— David Delgado🇪🇨 (@DavidDelgado_OC) February 15, 2023

Carrillo was also pleased with her team’s reaction after giving up an early goal that saw Reese Wroblewski put the Sea Hawks ahead. Her lob from the corner was misplayed by Lilly Kauffman, stationed at the near post, then the ball smacked her outstretched hands and landed in the net in the fourth minute.

“That threw us off a bit,” Carrillo said of the goal. “But I think it was a good reaction. We went down early and everyone was like, ‘Let’s go, we have to go,’ so they turned up for us when we needed it.”

Redondo coach Shelly Marsden felt the early goal had a negative impact on her team.

“It allowed us to relax and for us that was a bad thing, it made the other team scared and went in harder and wanted it a little bit more,” Marsden said.

Spartans senior Cindy Conner made it 1-1 in the 28th minute after Ayleen Ramirez played a ball into the box that was not cleared properly. Then Conner took control of the ball, turned and drove a powerful right foot shot past the Sea Hawks goaltender.

Redondo (15-3-2) had the most chances to break the tie in the second half as Haiden Schoenberger, Vailana Tu’ua and Reese Kennel all had good looks in front of goal.

Tu’ua made a run from the midfield line that included an over-dribble, but her right-footed jab went just wide and Schoenberger was able to take a long ball past Kaufman and go around her, but Schoenberger’s low shot was in front of an empty net cleared at the goal line by a Spartans defender.

“They definitely kept it in their backs,” Carrillo said of her team’s defense. “It’s tough when they (Redondo) come at us and you have to stay calm and one thing doesn’t go right but then you have to make sure you prepare for the next thing, so we definitely did very well.”