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NEWS AND NOTES FROM PRESS ROW
By Loren Kopff
@LorenKopff on Twitter
If the Artesia High girls soccer team wanted to use its home game against La Mirada High as a measuring stick to see if they have what it takes to win the program’s first Suburban League title, it picked the wrong day to have its worst performance of the season. The Pioneers were dominated both offensively and defensively by the defending league and California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Division IV champions in a 6-0 loss this past Wednesday.
It was Artesia’s worst loss to La Mirada since a 6-0 setback on Jan. 11, 2010 and the 24th time since 1998 it has been blanked by the Matadores in a loss. The teams did play to scoreless ties in 2008 and 2013.
“I would have never thought the score would end up this way,” said Artesia head coach Octavio Marquez. “I thought we came out flat. Even last year, we had a lot of close wins and shutouts and our defense has been our strength. Today, we just had a bad day.”
The Pioneers could have used some of the 12 goals they scored last Friday against John Glenn High, the second highest single game total in school history. Instead, Artesia (10-4-1 overall, 3-2-0 in league) registered only one shot on goal, which came in the 44th minute when a shot from senior defender Guadalupe Trejo went above the crossbar.
La Mirada, which entered the contest in third place and behind Bellflower High and Artesia, struck in the sixth minute when Maddie Bennett scored the first of her three goals. Nearly midway through the half, she converted on a penalty kick and completed her hat trick three minutes before halftime.
The Matadores also got a first half goal from Amanda Duran and second half tallies from Amberly Mentz and Marilyn Prieto. In all, La Mirada took 16 shots on goal and never allowed Artesia’s offense, which has scored 40 goals this season, to get anything going.
“After that second goal, that kind of took the air out of us and we struggled the rest of the game to try to get back and we never regrouped,” Marquez said.
Artesia visits Norwalk High today to end the first round of league play, then hosts Bellflower on Wednesday, hoping to avenge a 2-1 loss at Bellflower on Jan. 11. Still, this is the eighth straight season the Pioneers have won at least 10 games
“It’s a tough loss but it’s eventually something we need to move on from,” Marquez said. “We have Norwalk on Friday at Norwalk, so we need to bounce back and try to get that win. It’s far from over; the league has been close. Yeah, we have La Mirada again at their place [on Feb. 3] and we always know how tough it is to play at their place.”
In other girls soccer action, Gahr High was shutout for the fourth straight game, this time to Paramount High 2-0 this past Tuesday. The Gladiators, who haven’t scored since Dec. 19 against Eastside High, dropped to 4-9-1 overall and 0-3 in the San Gabriel Valley League. Gahr visited Downey High on Jan. 21 and will host Dominguez High on Tuesday before travelling to Lynwood High on Thursday.
John Glenn was blasted by Bellflower 11-1 this past Wednesday to drop to 4-9-0 overall and 0-5 in the Suburban League. The Lady Eagles have scored four goals over the past 10 games as they travel to La Mirada today.
Valley Christian High blanked Village Christian High 1-0 this past Tuesday to improve to 6-8-2 overall and 1-1-1 in the Olympic League. The Lady Crusaders, who have scored four goals in their past four games, will host Maranatha High tonight.
BOYS SOCCER
Artesia continues to keep its bounce back season going following a 1-0 win at La Mirada this past Wednesday, its eighth straight win and 10th in the past 11 games. The Pioneers, who missed the playoffs last season, improved to 13-2-2 overall, 5-0-0 in the Suburban League and will host Norwalk High today in a pivotal tilt to end the first half of league play. Norwalk posted a 1-0 win over Mayfair High this past Wednesday to improve to 6-6-1 overall, 2-3 in the circuit. The Lancers are tied for fourth place with Glenn and will host Cerritos High on Wednesday.
Gahr was blanked by Paramount 3-0 this past Tuesday to fall to 4-5-4 overall and 1-2-0 in the SGVL. The Gladiators hosted Downey on Jan. 21 and will travel to Dominguez on Tuesday before coming back home to face Lynwood on Thursday.
Glenn, which has scored only four goals all season, fell to Bellflower 3-0 this past Wednesday. It was the eighth time in 12 games that the Eagles (3-9-0, 2-3-0) failed to score. Glenn will host La Mirada today.
