It all started when St. Francis star running back Lutovika Ahoia introduced the Lancers Santa Clara-committed girls soccer team goalie Courtney Ogren to Coach Greg Calcagno.
“Lutoviko introduced Courtney to me one day at lunch as ‘our kicker for next year,” Calcagno remarked musingly. “She went out and tried it after soccer practice one day and that was it.”
Now, after last Saturday’s exciting win over WCAL rival Riordan in which Ogren played as big a part as any of the St. Francis players, her storybook senior season has yet another chapter.
The score was 33-27 and visiting St. Francis had stalled at the Riordan 9-yard line with 2:18 remaining in the third quarter when Calcagno sent his placekicker onto the field to try a 26-yard field goal that would make it a two-score game.
The offensive line flinched and the 26-yarder became a 31-yard attempt. Then the Riordan defense got the Lancers to move again and the field-goal attempt was now from 36 yards out. So what did Calcagno do? He went with one of his most clutch performers this season and stuck with his placekicker – and it didn’t matter that his rock-solid kicking star is a girl.
It would be a lie to say the 36-yarder cleared the crossbar with plenty to spare because it didn’t. What it did do is clear by inches, but what was important was it split the uprights. Years from now the only thing Lancers fans will remember is Ogren made a field goal that sealed the deal in a 36-27 victory that got St. Francis a piece of the wild-and-wacky West Catholic Athletic League title for the first time in 12 years.
“Courtney is clutch,” Calcagno remarked. “She’s been clutch for us all season. We stayed with her because she’s been lights out all season. She’s got ice-water in her veins, and that kick was with college uprights and from a tough angle.”
Ahoia was the workhorse against Riordan after rushing for 160 yards on 22 carries with one touchdown, and senior quarterback Kamalii Akina passed for an uncharacteristic three touchdowns in the run-oriented offense of Calcagno, but when the team gathered for its postgame pep talk from the coaches, the first player to get a shout-out from her teammates and the coaches was Ogren.
“It’s great having Courtney on the team. She’s just another football player, and she’s our kicker, and not just a girl kicker,” Calcagno said. “She’s gone from not knowing much about the game to hanging out with her teammates. When they go to other games, Courtney is with them.”
Ogren’s streak of 22 straight PATs this season came to an end when Riordan got through to block one on the third-quarter touchdown pass by Akina that gave the Lancers the lead for good. But the memory that will be etched in the memory of the senior Lancers soccer team goalkeeper-turned-football heroine will be the career-longest 36-yarder against Riordan at City College of San Francisco last Saturday.
Now, the CIF Central Coast Section Open 2 Division No. 1 seed moves into the playoffs and Ogren will get a chance to write another chapter in her story over the next three weeks if St. Francis can make it to the title game.
If they win it all, Courtney Ogren will be kicking in a NorCal Regional Bowl Game, and that will pretty noteworthy for any kicker, girl or boy.
