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Danes misfire on few chances
Fountain Valley couldn't overcome two emotional letdowns and four goals by Holy Family senior Maya Neam in a 5-0 first-round loss in the 3A state girls soccer playoffs Tuesday.
The host Danes (10-3) almost battled their way back into the game in the final moments of the first half. Down 2-0 thanks to goals by Neam, the Danes had two point-blank shots blocked by a Tigers defender in rapid succession in front of a wide-open net.
The ball was cleared out of the Holy Family end for a moment to allow Tigers goalkeeper Erika Binuya to get back into position. Fountain Valley got another shot off at close range that deflected off Binuya.
A Danes player, running forward into the play, knocked in the rebound but she was offsides. Moments later, it was halftime.
"We were scrambling a bit there at the end of the first half," Tigers coach Josh Craver said. "Fountain Valley surprised us with how hard they played."
The Danes played motivated early in the second half and had a shot moments after the opening kickoff sail wide of an open Tigers net.
Within a minute, Neam tracked down a long pass and beat Fountain Valley goalkeeper Yoem Clara for a momentum-killing score and 3-0 Tigers lead.
The Danes were never in the game after that.
"After getting down two or three, it's tough to climb back uphill," Danes coach Patrick McGinnis said.
Neam scored all four of her goals in different ways. Her first goal came off a rebound after a hard shot by Brittany Elbaum. Her second in the 39th minute came after she weaved around one defender, then two to fire a hard low shot into the far corner of the net past a diving Clara.
Her third came on a shot inside the near post after Neam faked toward the far side. Her fourth was a blast into the center of the goal.
Fountain Valley's leading scorers Wrendy Rayhill and Jenny Stoot were frustrated by a physical Holy Family midfield and defense.
"From the get-go they put a lot of pressure on us," McGinnis said. "They kept our big scorers pretty quiet."
