GIRLS SOCCER: Cap's Dream Run Ends

The Score: Soquel 2, Capuchino 0.

The Star: Capuchino High goalie Celina Ulloa delivered a solid performance as her team’s season ended in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs at Skyline College. The senior’s poise against a relentless Soquel attack helped keep the Mustangs within one goal until late in the second half.

The Turning Point: Soquel’s first goal, by Megan Veach in the sixth minute. It set the tone for the rest of the match and served notice on the Mustangs that they were in for a long day.

The Quote: "The bottom line is that teams at the higher level have more team speed and Soquel had speed today that was too much for us to handle.” – Capuchino coach Terry Andreacchi.

What's Next? Soquel moves on to face Live Oak in Saturday’s quarterfinals while Capuchino is done until next year.

The Bottom Line: Capuchino was the cream of the crop in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division this year at 13-1, but Wednesday's game against Soquel was a preview of what the Mustangs can expect next year when they move up to the PAL Bay Division. Capuchino will have to be faster and hungrier if it expects to return to the CCS playoffs anytime soon.

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‘Speed kills’ is an adage known to every coach around the world.

On Wednesday afternoon at Skyline College, in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs, the Capuchino High girls soccer team found out just how true that adage really is.

Seventh-seeded Soquel used its speed advantage to completely control the contest on the way to a 2-0 win over the No. 10 seed Mustangs to advance to a quarterfinal match against No. 2 seed Live Oak on Saturday. For Capuchino (17-4-2), it means an early exit from the playoffs in the last high school match for nine of its 17 players.

"The bottom line is that teams at the higher level have more team speed," said Capuchino coach Terry Andreacchi. "And Soquel had speed today that was too much for us to handle.”

That speed was on display in the opening minutes as Soquel’s Bella Gentile-Montgomery sprinted down the far sideline and fired a crossing pass through a pack of players that somehow found an open Megan Veach. Veach's shot to the far corner caught Mustangs goalie Celina Ulloa leaning the wrong way for an early 1-0 lead just six minutes into the contest.

Soquel (13-4-2) kept the pressure up against Capuchino throughout the first half, despite playing into a brisk wind that knocked down any attempt at a long pass in the air. But after the early goal, Ulloa stayed solid in net and kept her team in the game, down by just one at halftime.

Unfortunately, that meant the teams switched sides of the field and Soquel was playing with the wind in the second half.

"We kept close when we had the wind -- it cancelled a little of their speed advantage," Andreacchi said. "But then they got the wind and we didn't even get a shot on goal in the second half."

Soquel's Maddie Diaz put Capuchino in a deeper hole in the 68th minute with a point-blank shot into the back of the net that Ulloa had no chance to stop. The game-clinching goal came after the wind had knocked down a high pass attempt. Holley Tousseau collected the loose ball, dribbled around the only defender between her and the Mustangs' net and put a perfect pass onto Diaz's foot for the 2-0 lead.

"With that speed of theirs," Andreacchi said, "they were cutting us off on offense and quickly countering back against us. We just couldn't keep up with them."

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Soquel 2, Capuchino 0

At Skyline College

Scoring: S: Veach (Gentile-Montgomery) 6:00, S: Diaz (Tousseau) 62:00.

Records: Soquel 13-4-2. Capuchino 17-4-2.