Tied 0-0 with four minutes remaining in the CIF SoCal Regional Championship at Mission Hills High School, March 2, forward Kaitlyn Arciaga (11) shot the corner kick towards the penalty kick spot, meeting outside defender Emmy Monk (12). Crossing from the back post to center field, Monk bolted towards the ball, driving it up and over the goalie’s outstretched hands, where it bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and into the back of the goal.
Scoring the game’s sole goal, the girls team had secured their win in the state championship.
Monk, who has always had a knack for corner kicks ,indicated that this goal was unique to others she had scored in the past.
“Usually what we try to do in our corners is try to aim [for the] back post, which is where I was,” she said. “But Kaitlyn’s ball was more towards the PK spot, so I tried to run and get off the end of it.”
Monk’s goal, however, was not out of the ordinary.
“[Monk] has always been a big part of our corner kicks,” assistant coach Nicolas Spiess said. “She just has a knack for being open and finding the ball on corner kicks, and on that particular goal, she just timed her run.”
In this final game, the center focus for the team was to enjoy this last game.
Past teammates who had come to support the team through this journey shared similar encouragement with the girls.
“The day before the championship, we had one of our former players, Marley Canalis [who now plays soccer professionally with Seattle Reign FC], come in and she talked to them,” Spiess said. “She said, ‘Hey, this is your moment, enjoy your moment.’”
Beyond just that, the girls focused on internalizing the mantra that Coach Peter had drilled into them. Put 1% more in than you did before. And they did just that.
From the very first whistle, the competition was a means to an end. With a corner kick made on Westview in the first few minutes of the game, the energy was electric as the team pushed back with multiple shots. The rain fell harder around the team as they relentlessly worked towards keeping the ball on the other team’s side.
However, soaked socks and dripping ponytails were all but forgotten as forward Bailie Govek (11) fired a close miss, the ball just missing the sidebar of the goal.
Over the next few minutes, the team took multiple shots at Mission Hills, all missing by margins on the sides or going over the goal.
As halftime rolled around, with the score sitting stagnant at 0-0, the girls huddled as the coaches honed in on their strategies.
“We wanted to start strong,” Spiess said. “We wanted to keep the ball and combine and I think in the second half, we started to do that. We had more of the possession and more of the play and more of the momentum”
After halftime, the team resurged even stronger. Tensions grew as the opposition played rougher, landing a foul kick within the first few minutes of the second half. A miss.
Repeatedly taking corner kicks on Mission Hills, Arciaga was under the pressure of making one of them stick. After each corner, she slightly altered her technique to allow the ball to reach different parts in front of the goal.
As the sky grew darker, Mission Hills retaliated against Westview. A striking shot was made on the team, but the goalie, Soraya Souvanaphong (11) came to the rescue, catching the ball directly in her hands and putting it across the field.
With the stakes even higher, Monk and Arciaga ran the play they had run hundreds of times before. The applause was thunderous.
Scoring the winning goal of the championship, Monk said she was indescribably proud of how far she and the team had come.
“When the whistle blew for us to win, everyone stormed onto the field and everyone ran over to me,” Monk said. “We all started jumping and hugging each other and it just was so much fun.”
