It wasn’t easy but the Woodside girls soccer team advanced to the Central Coast Section Division II quarterfinals with a 4-2 victory over visiting San Benito on Wednesday night.
The top-seeded Wildcats improved to 6-4-8 while No. 16 San Benito ended its season at 8-9-2 overall.
Woodside, who has won CCS titles the past two years, will face eighth-seeded St. Ignatius, who defeated Carlmont, 3-1. St. Ignatius scored its three goals in the last 15 minutes of the game.
“We knew this was not going to be easy,” said Wildcats head coach Jose Navarrete. “They’ve been here before and they’ve played a lot of season competition. It looked like it was going to be easy for a while, then they came back. We kind of regrouped again. Give them credit, they came out here to play really good soccer.”
Halfway through the second half, Woodside senior Raquel Krampert shot a free kick. She smashed it through the top right of the goal and the Wildcats went up 3-2.
“I think that’s the first free-kick we’ve gotten all year,” said Navarrete. “She did a nice job finding the corner. I don’t think the goalie saw it till it hit the net. Otherwise, for us, it would’ve gone down to the last minute.”
In the first half, junior Mckenzie Baur found senior Kayla Hart on a corner kick and Hart knocked it home for the goal and the 1-0 lead.
Seven minutes later, Woodside junior Juliana Rodriguez rainbowed the ball over the goalies head for the scored and the Wildcats quickly took the 2-0 lead.
Five minutes later the first half, San Benito’s Carly Lowi kicked it right passed the Woodside goalie and the Haybalers made it a 2-1 Wildcat lead going into halftime.
The Haybalers came out strong in the second half when Stephanie Castillo kicked it to the corner of the net for the goal and tied the game at 2-2.
The Wildcats sealed the win when sophomore Gabriella Silvestri booted the ball in for the goal, making it a 4-2 game late in the second half.
“When my teammate passed it to me I kind of had a feeling it was going in,” said Silverstri. “It was nice because I haven’t scored all season.”
The Wildcats will take on St. Ignatius in the quarterfinal on Saturday at a time and place to be determined.
Elsewhere, Morgan Ketas scored the first two goals and Catherine Paulson scored the last two as No. 10 seed St. Francis swamped host No. 7 Alisal, 7-1, in another first round match in Division I.
Mikaela Bloyd, Emma Blackburn and Courtney Mathisen also scored for the Lancers (10-8-3), who will play No. 2 Homestead (12-4-4) at a site and time to be determined. The Mustangs beat Piedmont Hills, 3-0.
Paulson added a pair of assists, Blackburn also created an assist and Sophia Bloyd had an assist.
Division II
Priory gave top-seeded Live Oak everything it could handle, nearly toppling the Acorns, who brought a 13-match winning streak into play.
Live Oak (16-1-3) managed to advance, 6-5 on penalty kicks, after the Panthers (9-8-1) played them even, 3-3, through regulation.
Anysa Gray was at it again, scoring all three goals for the Panthers.
Menlo School (7-10-2) bowed out of the Division II tournament after a 1-0 loss to host South San Francisco.