Historic victory

“It feels good,” Littlerock senior Brianna Montes De Oca said. “We’ve been working hard, so I feel like all of our hard work is paying off. We showed it today. We played as a team and I’m proud of us today.”

Montes De Oca recorded a hat trick and one assist for Littlerock (9-8-3) with two of her team’s three first-half goals.

She put the Lobos on the board in the 18th minute as she set up on a pass from senior Biloxy Mendez and kicked the ball over the head of Vasquez goalkeeper Presley Anenberg.

A few minutes later, she scored her second goal in pretty much the same fashion.

Montes De Oca finished her hat trick in the second half as she scored on a left foot kick from the left side with 20 minutes to go in the game. 

“I’ve been working hard and I feel like I showed it today,” she said. “I scored my three goals, I feel like I deserved it.”

Senior Audrey Ocampo also had a goal off a corner kick by senior Brianna Perez in the first half.

Perez scored the final goal of the game with 18 minutes left to put the Lobos up 5-0. She finished with a goal and two assists.

But neither team stopped trying to score.

One of the best chances for Vasquez (13-6-1) came when junior captain Brooklyn Berger was fouled in the box and took a fairly close penalty kick.

“It was a little stressful,” she said. “I was trying not to overthink it.”

Berger’s kick was strong, but it was blocked by Vasquez freshman goalkeeper Graciela Jacquez. The ball hit off Jacquez’s hands and straight up before falling into her open arms.

“That was scary,” Jacquez said. “It felt great to block it, though, and the cheering was nice. When it went up, I was like, ‘Oh no!’ I thought somebody was going to run in and kick it.”

Jacquez had several saves in the first half and three big ones in the second half to preserve the shutout.

“It’s an honor, to be honest,” Jacquez said about being a part of school history. “My brother, he wanted to play soccer for the high school, but he didn’t get the chance to, so it’s kind of for him.”

Her defense was a big help, too, clearing the ball before it could get to Jacquez.

“I feel like we were confident and we talked a lot, which we do every game, but today we did more of it,” Littlerock senior defender Marisela Ramos said.

Littlerock finished fourth in the Golden League this season in coach Jose Gutierrez’s first year at the helm. 

“Our coach brought a lot of motivation to us,” Ramos said. “Years before, our coaches would say this game is for fun. But this year, we tried winning our games. We got more motivation from our families and our coaches.”

Making the playoffs and getting past the wild-card round has been a joy for all of the Lobos’ seniors.

“It feels good, because every single year we’ve played, we’ve been on the bottom,” Ramos said. “We finally came up and made a name for ourselves the last year.”

The Mustangs started the season strong, but injuries derailed their season a little. They finished third in the Heritage League.

“I feel like we pushed through a lot,” Berger said. “We started losing a bunch of games, but we brought it back our last game before this one. So, we brought back our confidence.

“Even though we were down five points, we still pushed until the end.”

Vasquez coach Terry Comstock was pleased with the way his team continued to fight throughout the game.

“I’m proud of the way they played, considering their injuries, and how they finished the season,” he said.

The Mustangs are losing just four seniors to graduation — captains Ashley Hinkel and Lindsey Lite, as well as Samantha Ayala and Savannah Goodnight.

“I feel like this is the closest team we’ve had, especially with the seniors,” Berger said. “There’s so few of them so it makes it that much harder, because it’s not a big group of girls, it’s a small, close group.”

Comstock said he has a talented group of freshmen coming in next year.

“I’ve got a good crop coming up from eighth grade that I know,” Comstock said. “I’m hoping I get them in time to start molding them into my system.”

Berger is also excited for next season.

“Hopefully, we make it past first round next year,” she said. “I think we can, because I feel like we’re going to put in the work preseason, even more than we did this year.”

Littlerock moves on to the first round of the playoffs where they will take on Samueli Academy (10-6-1) on Wednesday in Santa Ana. Samueli Academy won the Academy League title with a 6-0 record.

“We’ve just got to play as a team and hope for the best,” Montes De Oca said.