McMahan’s Goal Puts Cypress One Victory From Title

Cypress, despite playing a person down for more than half the game, beat host Orange Coast, 1-0, Friday to move within a victory of the Orange Empire Conference women’s soccer title.

The goal came in the 69th minute from Kristie McMahan, a freshman from Marina High, who took a pass from Nicole Terry and knocked it into the right corner of the goal.

“I felt pressure on my back. I didn’t want to hold onto [the ball] long,” said McMahan, who has eight goals this season. “We just played our hearts out. We played as hard as we could.”

Cypress had beaten OCC, 3-1, earlier this season and is 18-0-1, 9-0 in conference. The Chargers hold a two-game lead over No. 12 OCC (12-5-2, 8-2) with three left.

If Cypress beats visiting Santa Ana on Tuesday, it will be the Chargers’ sixth conference title in seven seasons. Cypress and OCC played to two 0-0 ties last season and shared the conference championship.

Cypress, the top-ranked team in the state, went a player down with about five minutes left in the first half. Orange Coast’s Erin Bergman stole the ball from Alisha Van Tassel on a slide tackle and the two became tangled.

The referee ejected Van Tassel for throwing an elbow and Bergman received a yellow card after the two were separated.

Orange Coast started well in the second half and applied plenty of offensive pressure in the first 15 minutes. The Pirates’ best chance for a goal came when Emma Ekbald had the ball and a step on three defenders, but the trio of Chargers collapsed on her as she prepared to shoot.