Girls soccer: Mountain Ridge’s special playoff run ends

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

QUEEN CREEK — Two Mountain Ridge girls soccer players appeared to be knocked to the turf in the final seconds of the team’s Feb. 17 Open Division quarterfinal loss.

The Mountain Lions’ coach said those are the breaks that go the winning side’s way.

“In a match like this, everythinghas to go your way,” Mountain Ridge coach Ryne Jakubos said after the team’s 3-2 loss at Casteel. “Calls, no-calls, corner kicks, balls in the back of the net — everything has to fall into place, in addition to all the hard work we put in.”

The Mountain Lions, the No. 23 seed in this year’s Open Division state tourney, made the most of their first two long bus trips to the Southeast Valley, winning at No. 10 seed Crismon and at No. 7 Campo Verde to reach the quarterfinals.

But defending finalist and No. 2 seed Casteel, which has reached the finals in five of the past seven seasons, was simply too tough to beat on its home turf.

The Mountain Lions ended the year with a 10-3-1 record, despite giving the 14-1 Colts as close and as physical a match as seemed possible.

Mountain Ridge did all this despite Casteel mostly dominating possession of the ball and in offensive chances, peppering Mountain Lion goalkeeper Kaylee McInerney with 15 shots on goal in the match, mostly from mid- or long-range.

Two of the first four Casteel shots got past McInerney, as the Mountain Lions were down, 2-0, by the 19-minute mark.

Fortunately, Mountain Ridge junior Ava Thornton scored on a free-kick play about six minutes after Casteel’s second goal, and the Mountain Lions contained and forced misfires on enough Colt shots to escape the first half down only 2-1.

The second half was slightly more even in terms of the match being played more on Casteel’s half of the field, though the hosts still seemed to have more excellent scoring chances.

The match turned on a sequence in the 72nd minute. A Casteel forward, driving just inside the penalty box, stopped quickly and drew contact, ending up on the ground and forcing a penalty kick.

One of Casteel’s top scorers, sophomore Sydney Lewis took the penalty kick. McInerney guessed correctly, diving to her right and making an initial save, but a Casteel player was first to the rebound and tapped it in for a 3-1 Colts lead.

“Momentum means so much in those moments,” Jakubos said.

Mountain Ridge didn’t get many solid scoring chances in the match, landing on three shots on frame, but scored on two of those shots. One came with only five minutes left in the match, with junior Kate Edrington heading in a perfect corner kick to make the score 3-2.

The Mountain Lions then had a few more opportunities while pressing in the match’s final minutes.

A cross into the middle, just before the buzzer and final whistle, led to a frenzy in front of the Casteel goal, with the keeper making a save and two Mountain Ridge players ending up on the turf.

“Kate (Edrington) looked like she got shoved from behind on that play, and we still almost scored,” Jakubos said. “But that’s the beauty of the game: You can do everything well, or a lot of things poorly, and the bounces still determine a lot.”

Jakubos, in his fourth year with the Mountain Ridge program, will lose only five seniors this year. He’s happy the younger Mountain Lion players got to experience an unlikely Open Division quarterfinal run.

“This is the kind of game you want to send them off with,” Jakubos said of the five seniors. “Right down to the wire. It’s experience. You try to get a little further each year, and we stayed in the Open this time. I’m proud of them. I think we surprised some people.”

Tuesday, Feb. 17

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Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.