Casa Grande girls beat Maria Carrillo to win NCS soccer championship

The last time Casa Grande won a section title, most of its current players were either in or hadn’t yet started preschool.

North Coast Section titles have proved elusive for the Gauchos since bringing home a pennant in 2010, back when they played during the fall instead of the winter. Since that last title, they’ve made the semifinals six times but could never get over the hump — that is, until this season.

A self-described “revenge tour” that began after some disappointing results in league play over a month ago culminated on Friday night as the Gauchos made their return to a section title game in well over a decade. They did not miss out on their opportunity to make school history.

Fourth-seeded Casa Grande captured the NCS Division 2 title with a 1-0 win at No. 3 seed Maria Carrillo on a near-freezing night in Santa Rosa. A goal in the ninth minute from senior forward Natalie Labanowski was the game’s only score. The Gauchos’ defense would take care of the rest.

“It feels so surreal,” said Labanowski, as she took in the postgame celebration with her teammates on the field. “Like, it honestly feels like a fever dream. I never would have thought we’d be here.”

Labanowski’s early goal was the result of a 50-50 play. Initially, she stumbled at the top of the keeper’s box as she battled a Maria Carrillo defender for a cross from her teammate Isabelle Thors. -The ball skipped free past the Carrillo defender and Labanowski got up, took possession and fired a shot that just slipped past the reach of Pumas star goalkeeper Brynn Korpela, who entered the game with 14 shutouts on the year.

“It was the right place at the right time,” Labanowski said. “I kind of just fell on the floor, got up and kicked it and it went right into the goal.”

Then came the hard part for Casa Grande: hold the one-goal lead. The Pumas (12-5-7) have struggled offensively at times this year, but on Friday night they had a grandstand of bundled up yet boisterous fans cheering them on.

A one-to-zero score? It was still anyone’s game.

The defense for the Gauchos (15-3-3) held firm to the half, but the final 40 minutes became a ferocious battle. Physical play intensified. Hard tackles left players strewn across the field. The crowds upped their volume. Referees eventually had to warn both sides to clean it up on the field.

By the 60th minute, Maria Carrillo began to play with a sense of urgency. The Pumas turned up the pressure and began searching for shots, trying to find any kind of opening in the Gauchos’ defense. None materialized. Attack after attack was sent away by Casa’s back line and goalkeeper Jessica Martinez, who had several key saves in the closing 20 minutes.

“Thinking back on it, I don’t necessarily know how we did it, especially with their crowd the way it was,” Gauchos senior defender Katie Hancock said. “I couldn’t even hear the thoughts in my own head.”

But the drama wasn’t over until the final seconds of stoppage time. Maria Carrillo was awarded a corner kick on what was essentially the final play of the game. The home crowd roared while the Casa Grande sideline could only watch nervously as the last moment unfolded.

However, like all the others, it too would yield no results for the Pumas. The corner kicked was successfully repelled and the final whistle sounded, sending the Gauchos streaming onto the field in celebration.

“It had that feel of a final, just so intense,” Casa Grande head coach Vinnie Cortezzo said. “The game never settled. Neither team really got into any rhythm. It was just a fight the whole way. But finals are like that a lot.”

Maria Carrillo head coach Michael Cox was understandably disappointed in the result but expressed how proud he was of both the Gauchos and his own team for their efforts.

“I love my bunch of monkeys,” he said. “They’re absolutely a fighting crew that just never gives up. You’d have to see our whole season to understand the ups and downs and the sideways we went through, but I’m proud of what we’ve done. I’m proud that we got here.”

As section finalists, both teams will continue on to the NorCal playoffs next week. They’ll find out their seedings Sunday.

You can reach Press Democrat Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.