Girls’ soccer: Did L.B. Wilson really score? San Clemente says, ‘No’
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Here’s the background: Last Saturday, in the Southern Section Division I finals, San Clemente and Long Beach Wilson played to a 1-1 tie. There are no overtime or penalty kicks in section title matches, therefore, they are co-champions. But ...
... here’s the scoop: Wilson’s goal, pictured left, never should have counted. At least not according to San Clemente fans, who has been circulating this video of the goal in question. It’s even been on the front page of the Register’s OCVarsity.com Web site.
UPDATE: Here’s the video below. No need to click on the link above.
The video, if watched enough times, seems to show the ball go over the crossbar and hit the goalpost and then roll down the back of the net. It’s not definitive, however. The ball could have gone inside of the crossbar, gone through a hole in the net, bounced of the goalpost and then rolled down the back of the net. Supposedly another video definitively shows the ball going in front of the crossbar, but I haven’t seen that yet.
San Clemente officials have shown their video to folks at the Southern Section office, but at this point it’s too late to do anything about it. What it does do, however, is add more intrigue to a potential Southern California Regional Division I final, should Wilson and San Clemente meet again at noon this Saturday at Downey High.
The Tritons are, obviously, still not happy.
‘The whole team feels like we should have been champions, not co-,’ said freshman Frannie Coxe, whose third-seeded Tritons (23-3--6) will host No. 8 Thousand Oaks (21-4-2) at 5 p.m. today/Thursday in a regional semifinal. ‘We want it. We all want [Wilson in the finals]. We want to beat them.’
Second-seeded Wilson (27-1-4), which will host sixth-seeded Mayfair (27-2-4) at Long Beach Millikan at 7 p.m. today/Thursday is feeling about the same. The Bruins don’t think they should have to share the title either and would welcome another opportunity to face San Clemente.
‘It was a hard-fought match between two teams... The way we played in the second half, we would have won it in overtime,’ Wilson Coach Jason Kirkwood said.
As if the soap opera-like drama wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that the match would be, in essence, the StudentSportsSoccer.com national championship game. Wilson is ranked No. 2 in the country and San Clemente is No. 3. The No. 1 ranked team, Torrey Pines, lost on Tuesday to Thousand Oaks.
-- Jaime Cardenas