Louisville Kicks One Away to Wolverines

ENCINO —  Assistant coach Keith West of Harvard-Westlake High told his girls not even to try to play their normal game of touch soccer, because they weren’t going to be able to.

West was right. An extremely high level of intensity and emotion made sure of it.

Using emotion and a little bit of luck, Harvard-Westlake managed to sneak out a 1-0 victory over Louisville in a Mission League opener Wednesday night at Crespi High.

“I told my girls not even to try to play [that style],” West said. “There was just too much emotion. Any time you play away and play a team with that much emotion you are lucky to win. We were playing for a tie. We were lucky to win.”

The Wolverines (9-2-2) snapped a two-game losing streak. After tying top-ranked Buena in the final of the South Torrance tournament, Harvard-Westlake dropped consecutive 2- 1 decisions, to Dublin California and Concord Carondelet on a trip to the Bay Area.

“What this win shows me is we have the ability,” West said. “We have been getting away with pure athleticism and not emotion.

“If you don’t play with emotion at this level you are going to be in trouble. I knew if we could match their emotion and intensity we were going to win.”

The opener between two of the region’s premier teams was not what was expected. Absent was the pretty soccer both teams are accustomed to playing, with one-touch plays and building attacks out of the back the norm.

Players who would normally shine struggled, and expectations kept players on both teams filled with jitters until the final whistle.

The only thing that stood out was an own goal that was knocked in by a Louisville defender. Both teams missed penalty kicks.

“It wasn’t even a soccer game out there,” Coach Jose Perez of Louisville said. “There were no touches. It wasn’t a good game to watch.”

The Wolverines managed to put together a few quality attacks during a brief span in the first half. Their first shot didn’t come until the 16th minute, but minutes later forward Tracy Lansing got credit for the only goal.

Lansing crossed a ball into a crowd of players a few feet in front of the goal, and in the confusion the ball was accidentally kicked into the goal by a Louisville defender.

The Wolverines had a chance to extend the lead after Molly Cahan was awarded a penalty kick for being tripped in the box. But her shot was saved by goalkeeper Kim Morgan.

“I told my girls whoever scored first was going to win,” Perez said. “It was a tough one. If we scored first we would have won.”

Louisville (8-2-5) did have a chance to score first, but Carrie Schuler’s penalty kick 36 seconds into the game hit the left post.

“I told [assistant] Greg [Avila] that we were going to be in trouble,” Perez said. “I knew when we missed the penalty kick they got the momentum and shortly after they scored.

“There were two tough teams playing. It’s too bad it all came down to an own goal.”

The Wolverines had trouble defending against the Royals’ speed, but Louisville’s plan of capitalizing on its speed never unfolded.

Both teams took nine shots, well below their season averages.