ARCADIA — Historically, bad fortune has often come the way of the Crescenta Valley High girls' soccer team at Arcadia High.
And when the latest installment of the heated rivalry occurred on Friday with first place in the Pacific League at stake, it was the same, classic bitter rivalry and, unfortunately for the Falcons, it was more bad fortune.
On the strength of a pinball score from senior Sarah Rock off a corner kick in the 56th minute, Arcadia defeated visiting Crescenta Valley, 1-0.
"We always know that it's gonna be a good game," said Falcons Coach Jorden Schulz, whose team fell to 7-4-1 overall and 5-1-1 in league, while Arcadia jumped out of a first-place tie, as it improved to 8-4-2, 6-0-1. "Arcadia does very, very well at home. They always have."
Over the last four seasons — with the previous three ending with the Falcons as league champions — Crescenta Valley has lost just four total league games and three have been to Arcadia with two on the road. In a span dating back to 1997, Crescenta Valley has defeated Arcadia just three times on the latter's home field.
Just as the outcome was nothing new, neither was the intensity, as the game was physical and hard-fought throughout.
"It was really everything I expected. It was a physical, scrappy game," said Arcadia Coach Ryen Piszyk, who was coaching in his first game in the rivalry. "We didn't play our best, but we ground out a victory and put the ball in the back of the net and, in the end, that's all that matters."
Truth be told, the ball actually never got all the way to the back of the net, but it got past the goalline and just enough through the grasp of a diving Jessi Magallon in the Falcons net to count for the game-winner.
During a span of roughly 16 minutes to open the second half in which Arcadia dominated possession and seemed to have an endless amount of corner kicks and up-close free kicks and throw-ins, it seemed inevitable that the Apaches would eventually score. It came to fruition when Rachel Schroeder put a corner kick to the far post that pinballed off at least three different players before touching Rock and going in low despite a phenomenal Magallon effort.
"You just can't have a ball bouncing around in the box for that long," Schulz said of all the Apaches' opportunities on set pieces. "It never turns out well."
