By Ed Piper
La Jolla, having high hopes behind senior leadership and lots of depth, entered its CIF Division 2 first-round home game as the number-five seed Wed., Feb. 14.
At 24:35 left in the first half, forward Sophia O'Brien did a 360-degree pirouette around her SDA defender and headed upfield. The home crowd, loving the move, oohed-and-aahed.
But a different emotion came out when San Dieguito's Ayla DeVore broke a scoreless duel by ramming home a penalty shot with 11:10 left in the half. The hard kick, to the right, glanced off Viking goalkeeper Heidi Weise's diving hands and into the net.
Two and a half minutes later, DeVore's shot went into the goal, as well. But teammate Mia Pullman was assessed a yellow card--for an apparent handball in the penalty box?--and the goal was annulled. This was at the 8:40 mark.
However, dread rose up even further on the La Jolla side when DeVore, during compensation time, kicked a curving shot from the right sideline over Weise's head as she jumped to try to block it, hit off the lower edge of the crossbar of the goal, and deflected into the back of the net. SDA led, 2-0, and that's how the first half ended.
One of DeVore's teammates, at the time of the goal, could be overheard telling her from the middle of the field, "You almost had a hat trick" (with the goal that didn't count).
The Vikings were able to muster one goal in the second half, but fell short, 2-1, in the end, thereby ending their hopes for 2023-2024.
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