“I guess we had no home scoreboard advantage,” said Curreri, a Crescenta Valley High graduate. “It all worked out in the end.
“I thought we were up 9-7 when we had the ball in the last 30 seconds. You want to be able to control the ball in the last 30 seconds.”
The Tologs probably wouldn’t have won a match similar to this last season, when they went 1-23. Instead, they got a stellar effort from sophomore goalkeeper Shaylyn Stanley and drivers Kathleen Harper and Olivia Gonzalez.
Stanley finished with 17 saves for the Tologs, who got three goals apiece from Harper and Gonzalez.
“Shaylyn played great, but we need to have our defense get to any rebounds,” Curreri said. “Kathleen and Olivia showed what they can do on offense.”
Flintridge Sacred Heart grabbed a 9-6 lead on a goal by Harper with 4:57 remaining before Milken Community got a goal apiece in the final 81 seconds from Sammie Offsay and Lauren Salka.
The Tologs enjoyed their biggest lead at 8-4 when Julia Brandauer scored her second goal of the match with nine seconds left in the third quarter.
The Tologs scored four consecutive goals in less than four minutes toward the end of the quarter.
“I thought we played great in the third quarter,” said Curreri, who got one goal from Katherine Gates. “The momentum seemed to shift to us in the third quarter.
“It was like the light switch had been turned on. We acted like the way we normally play. We got a little shaky in the fourth quarter. The experienced teams can put four consecutive good quarters together.”
Offsay led Milken Community with three goals.
CHARLES RICH covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3228 or charles.rich@latimes.com.
