JSerra girls soccer ties No. 1 Santa Margarita with with ‘storybook’ goal in second half ...Middle East

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Gabriella “GG” Szczuka admitted it. She was nervous. She was stepping onto the soccer pitch she was so familiar with to face the No. 1 team in Orange County, the No. 1 team in the state – Santa Margarita. But this time, Szczuka wasn’t wearing the blue of the Eagles, she was starting for JSerra.

The sophomore set aside her nerves and focused on the sliver of an opening in front of her. And then she delivered less than three minutes into the second half Tuesday. A goal. A game-tying goal. A goal that would send JSerra home feeling like it had won and Santa Margarita feeling like it had lost.

Ranked No. 2 in Orange County, JSerra scored a 1-1 tie with No. 1 Santa Margarita, which is in that “best team in the nation” conversation.

Coming off victories over Orange Lutheran and Mater Dei, JSerra improved to 11-4-2 overall, and 2-0-1 in the Trinity League. Santa Margarita, which tied with then-No. 2 Mater Dei last week, is 11-0-2 and 1-0-2.

“For me, I just transferred from Santa Margarita so I was nervous all day,” said Szczuka, who played on the Santa Margarita junior varsity team last year before transferring over the summer to JSerra and sitting out the beginning of this season. “I talked to the coaches. I talked to my goalkeeper, Daphne (Nakfoor), who said to just do my thing.”

And she did.

With Santa Margarita keeper Ruby Berg moving to the far post and Natalie Leon defending, Szczuka took a headed pass from Maddyn Baziak and struck the ball to the front left post for a score.

“You only get so many opportunities, and if you don’t put them away, it’s a difference maker,” JSerra coach Anjel Brown said. “For a kid – first year at JSerra, first year on varsity – to score the tying goal against the team she transferred from, that’s huge. Takes a lot of maturity, lot of discipline to do that.

“It’s a storybook thing. She was on JV last year for Santa Margarita – she would have been on varsity at JSerra. Anybody who works that hard and has her soccer IQ, it doesn’t matter how young they are, the potential is there. I’ll work with potential 10 times out of 10. And that performance shows why. Her work rate today shows why. I imagine she was the most nervous out of everyone, and she was able to put one away in a crucial moment.”

Nakfoor, who has committed to UCLA, finished with 10 saves, seven in the first half. Had the match gone longer, JSerra might have exorcised two decades worth of demons. To Brown’s knowledge, the Lions have never won a game at Santa Margarita.

“It was a good thing for them the whistle blew,” Brown said. “They had some chances, but we were winning the second half and I think we would have scored.

“It’s a great thing to tie the No. 1 team in state when we’re not even in the Top 10. That’s a great thing. … They’re a very talented team, very veteran team. You could see our youth, but we have a lot of young players who are stepping up.”

JSerra has four freshmen on the varsity, including two starters. Katie Saur and Kaylee Hanna.

If JSerra won the second half, there was no question that Santa Margarita won the first 40 minutes. Despite seven shots on goal, the Eagles only had a 1-0 lead on the strength of junior Cora Fry’s goal three minutes into the match. Fry took a pass from Mia Corona and scored from 10 yards.

But the Eagles didn’t show the kind of tenacity to put a team away when it had the opportunity. Eagles coach Craig Bull called their performance “casual” in the first half. In the second half, when their effort improved, JSerra matched them. The Lions had missed their opportunity.

If Brown felt great, Bull felt “frustrated and disappointed.”

Bull thought his team took a step backward “because of the execution. We didn’t play the way were are capable,” he said. “We have to do the little things technically better than we did. Same thing happened against Mater Dei.”

Bull admitted he “would rather be sitting at 2-0-1 than 1-0-2. But there are still three games to go, and you can go from first place to last place in three games.”

JSerra plays host to Orange Lutheran next Tuesday, Jan. 28, and follows that with a game at Mater Dei. Santa Margarita plays at Mater Dei on Tuesday, Jan. 28, and then Orange Lutheran. The Eagles will play at JSerra on Feb. 3.

No. 3 Mater Dei lost Tuesday to Orange Lutheran 3-1, dropping the Monarchs to 0-2-1 in league.

“Everyone in this league is such good competition,” Fry said. “You have to come prepared every game. No days off. I was definitely hoping we could keep our momentum (after our score), but I think we got a little bit comfortable.

“We tie together, we lose together, and we win together. It was upsetting but we’ve come from behind before. We’re a team that can make the most out of the time we’ve got, but we didn’t perform our best today. But I definitely have faith in our team.”

Fry has faith, but it’s JSerra with the hope that it can win a Trinity League title for the first time in years, and it loves where it’s at right now.

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