CIF NorCal soccer roundup: O’Dowd beats Buchanan, SRV boys, girls advance to state, Del Mar wins Division III
Bishop O’Dowd girls soccer has just about achieved all its goals this season.
The Dragons are West Alameda County Conference Foothill Division, NCS Open Division and now CIF NorCal Division I champions after a 4-0 demolition of visiting Buchanan of Clovis on Saturday afternoon in Oakland.
But there’s still one more goal out there.
O’Dowd (19-0) now advances to the inaugural CIF Division I state championship game, which will be played at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at Natomas High in Sacramento.
The Dragons, the No. 2 seed from the North, will face off against Southern California No. 2 Mater Dei-Santa Ana for the first top-flight state title.
One more accomplishment is left to complete the set. And for the next six days, O’Dowd will dream of putting a storybook cap on what has already been an unprecedented run of success.
“The girls pulled through, and we scored very early in the first few minutes,” coach Mark Savvides told the Bay Area News Group. “And it was domination from then onwards.”
O’Dowd jumped out to an early lead on Kiana Lee Olsen’s goal in the third minute, then fortified it with Sadie Siedel’s score in the 25th.
The Dragons kept the pressure on with Abby Forsgren’s goal in the 60th and capped it off with Siedel’s second in the 62nd.
Forsgren had a trio of assists to accompany her goal.
“We had about 25, 30 shots,” Savvides said. “It was complete and utter domination.”
O’Dowd has had some close games during this stretch, but the Dragons were able to kick their feet up and enjoy the spoils of victory early on Saturday.
They also did it without key players Chloe Keating and Paloma John-Baptiste, who were unable to participate due to club commitments. Center back Ana Pintard hurt her quad Thursday against Los Gatos and also was unable to go.
But O’Dowd has found a way in every game this season, and Saturday was no exception.
“Our lineup was very funky, and it was very crazy,” Savvides said. “Ana was in the starting lineup until 20 minutes to go. She tries to warm up, her dead leg from Thursday just came back to bite her in the backside.
“She pulled out. So literally 20 minutes before kickoff. I’m putting people in different positions, and we’re scrambling, and players that are expecting to play substitute ended up playing. It was pregame chaos that doesn’t normally happen. So to still get the win with that was pretty cool.”
Savvides singled out Audrey Lewis, Remi Hayes and Ava Johnson for playing out of position and in unfamiliar roles amid the unpredictability of late-season absences.
“I don’t think it’s really hit home yet,” Savvides said. “It’s been a three-year process of trying to do it, and now that we’ve won it, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow.’ We always want to win everything, but to go and actually win everything, like, our record is 19-0 at the moment. We always wanted to have a 19-0 record at this point of the season. But who really thinks that’s achievable?
“I think tomorrow I’ll wake up and be like, ‘Wow, we actually did it.’ Because at the moment, it’s just surreal.”
SRV boys move on to state
One Bay Area team was guaranteed to emerge from the San Ramon Valley/Berkeley title tilt in boys Division II, and it was the Wolves who took it home.
SRV, the eighth seed in the division, beat Berkeley 2-1 to cap a run of three straight road wins and reach the D-II state title game.
“I could not be any happier for our boys,” SRV coach Don Busboom told this news organization. “They have persevered through a lot of adversity and have demonstrated the heart of a champion.”
Xander Lee (8’) and Aidan DePaco (24′) scored for SRV, with the latter goal assisted by Miles Taylor. Brayden Kimball had eight saves for the Wolves to preserve the win.
SRV will face South No. 2 Mira Monte at 8 p.m. on Friday, also at Natomas High.
SRV’s girls team also won the Division II title with a road victory over Archbishop Mitty. Full details from that game can be found here.
Del Mar secures championship double
Del Mar boys soccer continues to rack up titles.
Just a week after winning the CCS Division III championship over Christopher, the Dons (17-6-3) defeated top seed Liberty Ranch 3-1 to win the NorCal Division IV title on the road in Galt.
Del Mar will face SoCal top seed University-Irvine for the D-IV state championship at 3 p.m. Friday in Natomas.
Crystal Springs falls short in final
A strong season for Crystal Springs Uplands ended Saturday as the Gryphons lost 1-1 (5-4 penalty kicks) to top seed Branson in the Division V championship held at College of Marin.
The Crystal Springs boys conclude their season with a sterling record of 20-3-2.
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