Anna Ybarra deserved a better fate.

So did her gritty teammates.

Har-Ber’s Erica Orellana Aguillar rebounded Annabel Weber’s miss and got one past Ybarra with 7:40 left in regulation to give Har-Ber a 2-1 win over the Lady Bears.

Har-Ber (14-9) faces Bryant today in the second round.

“She shot it and I was like, ‘Oh my God, you know what to do!’ I said to myself, ‘You know what, I’m just going to go for it.’ I shot and it went in,” Aguillar said.

Actually, Aguillar wrestled the ball from Weber’s grasp on the rebound and, with her momentum coming forward, Ybarra didn’t have time to react.

“I was really scared, but I already knew that my friend wasn’t getting the ball — I was taking the ball from her,” Aguillar said. “I thought, if I miss it, I miss it. When I made it, I could feel my heart drop. I was begging God so much in my head.”

“You have to give her (Ybarra) credit for the save,” Northside coach Mauricio Maciel said. “We have to have defenders compliment her saves. She can make good saves, but we have to have defenders ready to compliment her, and we didn’t have that. We didn’t have the presence of mind to make adjustments; give them (opponents) a corner (kick) if you have to.

“We were just not fast enough to do that.”


Maurico said Mother Nature affected the Lady Bears’ second half chances. As skies cleared, the wind picked up in the final 40 minutes, which Har-Ber took advantage of.

Ybarra was under constant assault in the second half, deflecting one potential goal after another.

“I think the wind was a big factor in the second half,” Maciel said. “We were going against it, and we had a lot of trouble coming out of the back.

“But it’s not because they didn’t try; they played their hearts out.”

Har-Ber scored first when Megan LaMendola scored the game’s first goal at the 37:36 mark.

Without many first half chances, Northside didn’t miss when Kaitlyn Gilkey ? got free at the 14:29 mark.


