PHOTOS: First half goal lifts Crean Lutheran soccer team into CIF championship match

Crean Lutheran players thank the home fans for their support. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs: Ted Rigoni, John Luciano and Howard Lyon).

Crean Lutheran High School’s girls soccer team gave its home fans plenty to cheer about Friday night.

The Saints converted a penalty kick in the first half, then controlled the second half to defeat Walnut 1-0 in the CIF Division 5 semifinals in front of hundreds of happy Crean Lutheran fans in the campus stadium.

Crean Lutheran moves on to the championship match Saturday night at 5 p.m. vs. Hemet at Crean Lutheran. It will be the program’s first appearance in the finals since 2017.

“Sometimes, it’s not always pretty and the things we try to do don’t always work out but I feel the grit and the hard work, the effort and the love and care for each other, that’s what paid off tonight,” said Saints Coach Stephen Jennings.

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Crean Lutheran got the only goal of the game with about nine minutes left in the first half.

The Saints Hope Hyepock was driving toward a goal when she was stopped by the Walnut goaltender, who was called for a yellow card. Jennings called on sophomore Taylor Hook, who has been one of the team’s top penalty kickers, for the penalty kick and she cooly fired the ball into the net.

It was all the Saints would need for the win.

“It was so stressful, the last game I took a penalty kick and I definitely did not do well so I knew I had to make this one,” Hook said. “It took a lot out of me, so I’m so glad. It was clearly a foul, the keeper came out and sweeped her legs. I’m so happy, we had the mindset we wanted to win. We know we’re going to have a hard team next. We’re just going to work hard this week and hopefully get a win.”

“To have the effort to get that PK was huge,” Jennings added. “I think we wanted it more. Being at home is really awesome and being able to be in front of our fans and the support from our school, I’ve never seen this many fans ever at a girls soccer game, it’s very exciting. Being at home is definitely reassuring for them.

“The girls played amazing tonight. Walnut is a good team and they played really well and they have some talented players. It could have gone either way. Tonight it went our way so it was pretty exciting for us.”

Crean Lutheran’s defense was stingy from start to finish and kept Walnut from getting too many scoring opportunities. Goalkeeper Brooklyn Acevedo was able to make a number of saves off long-range shots and her teammates supported her with solid defense.

“Tonight, you could tell they were not going to let them get past them,” Jennings said. “They forced shots from way-out wide, Brooklyn is an amazing goalkeeper and she is so dominant and strong in the back. We knew if they weren’t going to get inside 18, they weren’t going to score on us and that’s what happened. We kept them outside of our 18 really well, that was the game plan.

“There are a couple girls like Avarie Tierney, who was a standout today at right back and the senior back line from Brooklyn to Hannah Montford to Lauren Novell and Avarie Tierney is the heart of our defense and they’ve done an amazing job. All the credit to those seniors.”

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com