<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
“[After the game, I told my team] that it stings more because they worked so hard to get it back into their hands. <\/span>If the game ended 2-0, they’d be sad walking off the field, but they worked and pushed so hard to get back into the game that it makes it hurt worse,” said Poly’s head coach, Teri Collins after a 3-2 double overtime loss to Santa Margarita that adds a new chapter to the term “heartbreaking.” <\/span>Poly had gone down by two in the first half before battling back in, scoring two goals in the final ten minutes, only to fall in the final minutes of the second extra-time period.<\/p>\n The ‘Rabbits got their chances early, but kept missing a little wide to the right—a Sam Shier pass to Jocelyn Reist went that way, a shot by Allison Whalen after she came around the wing did, and two quality shots by Jazmine Rhodes drifted off to the right as well. <\/span>Throw in a well-placed free kick that dinged off the crossbar, and it’s easy to see how a team might get frustrated when they still found themselves losing in the 36th<\/sup> minute, after Santa Margarita’s Leigh Edwards scored off a corner kick that Poly couldn’t clear. <\/span>Poly continued to get quality looks early in the second half, but the sport of soccer demonstrated to the Poly sideline that ‘the beautiful game’ can be a cruel mistress, as well. <\/span>In the 54th<\/sup> minute, the ball popped up off the turf and struck defender Keyana Thompson-Shaw’s hand—because she was in her own goal box, that meant a penalty kick for Santa Margarita, which Ashley Kotero drilled into the right pocket of the net. <\/span>For the next twenty minutes, Poly continued to press as the Eagles collapsed defensively and tried to limit Poly’s quality chances.<\/p>\n They succeeded for the most part, until Whalen made an amazing solo play down the middle of the field, juking the Eagles’ goalie and scoring to bring the game within one in the 74th<\/sup> minute. <\/span>Then, with just a minute before stoppage time, Poly got another great solo effort from Kasia Johnson, who put in the equalizer. <\/span>The first overtime was played in the middle of the field, with the Eagles getting a few chances but nothing serious—the second overtime period was that way for the most part as well, and the thriller seemed destined for penalty kicks…until Margarita’s Lauren Bohaboy found herself in a one-on-one situation with Poly’s goalie, and managed to dink the ball by her for the winner.<\/p>\n That Poly, a high seed as Moore League champs, had to play a team as stacked as Santa Margarita in the first round, is a testament to the quality of the bracket—but it also gave Poly a tall order, which they couldn’t quite complete. <\/span>However, the ‘Rabbits’ growth as a team was obvious—in one of their first league games of the season, they took an early 1-0 lead over Wilson, before allowing the Bruins to come back and score two goals in the final ten minutes to win the game. <\/span>In this contest, it was Poly who didn’t give up, fighting their way back into a playoff contest with a late-game performance that Collins said she’d never seen from her team. <\/span>Poly returns a number of quality underclassmen next season, but this was the last game for a core group of seniors—including the five captains, Kasia Johnson, Jocelyn Reist, Nailah Waterfield, Claire Livoja, and Allison Whalen—that helped raise the team to its current prominence. <\/span>“I don’t think the young girls know how hard the seniors worked—they brought this team into their current position,” said Collins, recalling their road playoff defeat in those seniors’ freshman seasons, and how inexperienced her squad was then.<\/p>\n “I told them this game doesn’t define them, it doesn’t define this season,” said Collins. <\/span>“But the battle defines them.”<\/p>\n