Frontier girls capture first section soccer crown
| Saturday, Feb 28 2009 02:17 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:02 PM
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With their section championship victory well in hand, Frontier players cheer for their teammates in the closing minutes Friday. From left are Vanessa Gutierrez, Lorelei Britt, Halle Meadows, Amanda Brown (who scored two goals) and Hallie Rogers.
The Frontier girls celebrate their section soccer championship, the first in school history. Holding the plaque is Amanda Brown, who scored two goals.
Frontier's Vanessa Gutierrez holds off Cristina Aguirre (13) of Reedley as they go for the ball during Friday's section championship match.
First Central Section championship on campus. Chance for the first section title in a team sport. First time, in fact, anybody turned the lights on over Titan Stadium at Frontier High School.
First goal? A freshman. Naturally.
Hallie Rogers scored to open the floodgates, Frontier's only senior sent home two goals and the Titans' girls soccer team rolled to a 4-0 victory Friday against Reedley for the Division II section championship.
"We came to play," Frontier coach Max Bluemel said. "I'm very proud of what they did."
Afterwards, as a big crowd filtered onto the field, Amanda Brown, the senior whose goals gave Frontier a huge cushion, stood under the lights clutching the championship plaque.
"Words can't describe how I feel right now," Brown said. "It's amazing."
Frontier (17-7-4) had to battle the odds and the obstacles just to get to this point. They finished third in the Southwest Yosemite League and received a No. 8 seed in the D-II bracket. They edged Lemoore in the first round with a last-minute goal and a shootout victory, then beat top-seeded Tulare Union in a shootout and No. 4 Visalia-Redwood 2-1.
Reedley had a similar run, coming from the No. 11 seed to beat No. 6 Tulare Western, No. 3 Fresno-Edison and No. 2 Garces.
But by the time this one was half over, it was clear the championship round would be more coronation than contest.
"By the time we got playing, it felt like it was already ours," Brown said. "The other teams we played were tougher than this."
The Titans dominated play from the get-go but didn't get on the scoreboard until the 23rd minute, when sweeper Amanda Bennett took the ball upfield and found Rogers at the top of the penalty box. Rogers fired a shot that deflected off a defender and into the corner of the net.
"My heart was beating so fast when I scored," Rogers said. "We've gone through so much with the shootouts and the overtimes, sudden death, to win like this is amazing."
Kelly Nikkel, who was a dangerous weapon the wing all night, fed Brown for the second goal just before halftime, and the senior scored against 10 minutes after the break.
"I'm proud of our girls; they had a good run," said Reedley coach Stan Kanawyer, whose team was seeded 11th. "I'll tip my hat off to Frontier. That team was just better than us tonight."
By the time sophomore Cami Privett made it 4-0 with about 20 minutes to go, the crowd of some 1,500 was already rocking and rolling.
"We had to figure out a way to bring a championship home to this school, and I'm so proud of the girls for doing that," Bluemel said. "When we walked into this stadium and saw the way the school was behind us, the girls truly believed they were going to win this game. And nothing stopped us from that point."
