The Orchard Valley Storm claimed its third tournament
championship of the summer this past weekend in San Luis Obispo’s
18th annual North vs. South tournament.
The Orchard Valley Storm claimed its third tournament championship of the summer this past weekend in San Luis Obispo’s 18th annual North vs. South tournament.
The Storm opened play against the South Valley United from Visalia. Michaela Swensen staked the Storm to a 1-0 lead by punching in a beautiful cross from Taylor Slattery. United manage to salvage a tie by virtue of a late tally on a direct kick.
The Storm’s attack picked up considerably in Saturday’s second game, as it beat the Bakersfield Gunners 4-0. Tula Urban connected with Molly Cuevas to open the scoring. Tori Gulla proved to be the star of the game by scoring a pair of goals, one of which was a bender from the left side of the box that David Beckham would have been proud of.
The Storm earned its way into the championship game by beating FC Santa Barbara 1-0. The lone goal came on a brilliant play from Monica Luna, who stole the ball near midfield and pushed a perfect through-ball to Slattery. Slattery then crossed the ball to Paige Menage, who beat the keeper at the far post.
Emily Kyle and Syd Barker starred defensively in the shutout.
In the championship game the Storm completely dominated Real California for all but the final five minutes of regulation play.
The Storm built a 2-0 lead on goals by Luna and Slattery, assisted by Urban and Gulla. The Storm’s midfield, led by Amber Thomas and Janessa Garcia kept the ball in the Real end for almost the entire game.
With the clock running down, Real scored on a direct kick, then suddenly scored again to tie the score.
The Storm dominated the overtime period, as Rachel Christensen, among others, nearly punched in the winner. Despite out-shooting Real 6-0 in the overtime, the Storm could not score and the game went to a shootout.
In the shootout keeper Allison Hadidian came up with several huge saves. Sydney Barker nailed a PK to stave off elimination.
Finally, on the ninth round of PKs, Menage nailed the winner. Menage was instantly mobbed by her teammates and members of the Orchard Valley Sting, who earned their own medal earlier in the afternoon and stayed on to watch their “little sisters” play in the finals.
The Storm added the North vs. South championship to titles they earned in June in Reno and in July at Sonoma State. The Storm also went undefeated in the San Francisco Cup over the Memorial Day weekend against older competition, finishing third out of 16 teams. Overall, the Storm has a 14-0-4 record in tournament play this summer.
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