Girls’ soccer: Moorpark used to beating the odds

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Considering the rash of injuries they’ve endured this season, you can forgive Moorpark Coach Frank Paletta for being a little surprised his gals will be playing in the program’s first divisional title game on Saturday afternoon.

‘We made it against all odds and, considering where we’ve been and what everybody had said, it’s been pretty great,’ said Paletta, whose Musketeers are playing Marmonte League rival Thousand Oaks for the Southern Section Division II title.

Moorpark’s unlikely 10-win, 10-tie journey has been littered with injuries to key players. California-bound leading scorer Kaitlin Paletta missed a chunk of games because of a concussion and forward Noelle Kolb (leg) and highly touted freshman defender Megan Lew (knee) have been sidelined with season-ending injuries.

Still, the Musketeers are used to the underdog role. After all, Moorpark was playing a distant second fiddle all season to Thousand Oaks and Agoura in a league most people figured wouldn’t amount to much of anything.

‘From the start, we said we were going to play for the other person -- the coach, the teammate, the school, the city of Moorpark,’ Paletta said. ‘It’s pulled us through the tough times.’

And we’ll see on Saturday if the strategy pays off one more time.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image from www.moorparkaquatics.net