Grant Gordon
Shot after shot, scoring chance after scoring chance had gone awry
for La Canada High girls' soccer player Nancy Avesyan on Friday.
The freshman forward had dealt with near misses all match long.
Then came the 65th minute and a pass from Claire Callister.
Avesyan beat both the Monrovia goaltender and defender to the ball
and finally converted.
After a fluke goal was scored with seconds remaining, Avesyan's
tally stood as the match-winner in the Spartans' 2-1 win against the
Wildcats in the teams' Rio Hondo League opener at La Canada High.
"I finally got through," Avesyan said. "I finally got it in."
The goal proved reward for not only Avesyan's match-long efforts,
but her team's as well.
Callister had booted in a Mackenzie Paxton cross just four minutes
into the match for a 1-0 lead. For the 61 minutes in between the
goals, the Spartans (7-4-1) controlled the pace of the match, the
ball rarely venturing into La Canada's side of the field.
"I think everybody was a little timid," said Callister, a junior
forward. "We weren't sure how the ball was gonna bounce."
Thanks to the ever-present downpour, the slick field made for
quicker bounces and tougher ball-handling.
The Spartans obviously fared better with the conditions than the
Wildcats (9-3-2), however.
La Canada's only major mistake came with just seconds before the
final whistle, when a Monrovia shot took a high bounce over goalie
Anya Rosen's head.
With the win, the Spartans completed quite a week.
On Wednesday, they defeated cross-town rival Flintridge Prep, 2-0.
As of this week, Flintridge Prep was ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern
Section Division IV poll, while Monrovia was ranked fourth. La Canada
was unranked, something likely to change.
Said Spartan Coach Louis Bilowitz: "We ... played better this week
than we did any time last year."
Last year's Spartans journeyed all the way to the CIF
quarterfinals.
* GRANT GORDON covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3225
or by e-mail at grant.gordon@latimes.com.
