BEAUMONT, CA – One by one, Heritage-Romoland, Hemet, Vista Murrieta and, finally, Serrano-Phelan tried to beat an unbeatable force.
But Coachella Valley-based La Quinta High School’s defense wasn’t giving up anything.
At the Dec. 3-5 Winter Classic, hosted by Beaumont High School at the city’s nearby Sports Complex, La Quinta not only beat all four teams. None of those four sides were even able to score a regulation or overtime goal against the Lady Blackhawks.
Despite its stranglehold on the Beaumont tournament, past Desert Valley League opponents and various Southern Section Division 5 opponents, this season’s La Quinta shortcoming so far has been scoring.
The scoring punch, says La Quinta’s longtime coach Bob Quattlebaum, “I think … is going to come from a variety of players.”
Jianna Guerrero, who scored 13 times with seven assists, has a team-high two goals so far this season.
There’s scoring in La Quinta’s lineup from last season – Jaylene Manion (13 goals), Kailee Prescott (11), Reanna Rivera (9), Tatiana Woodworth (8) and Alexis Garcia (7).
Consider La Quinta’s run to Beaumont’s tournament triumph included scoring just seven goals, all in the opening two matches, and getting shut down in both the semifinals and championship matches.
Those final two matches came in one day, both Saturday contests which produced 0-0 draws against a pair of goal-savvy Vista Murrieta and Serrano sides.
IMPRESSIVE BACKGROUND
La Quinta’s story is off-the-charts good – with a little heartache and controversy thrown into the mix. This is the side that beat St. Margaret’s in a stirring overtime duel back in a 2014 Southern Section Div. 5 quarterfinals showdown – with its top player, Brielle Leon, watching from beyond the fence.
That was the problem – watching from beyond the fence. It was reported to Southern Section officials, who forfeited La Quinta’s victory to Santa Margarita en route to a CIF championship.
Leon having been red-carded in La Quinta’s previous win – a typical 1-0 defense-oriented triumph over Maranatha-Pasadena – seemed to violate Southern Section rules by watching so close.
St. Margaret’s, 12-11-6 that season, took La Quinta’s spot in the tournament, eventually beating San Marino for the Southern Section Division 5 title. If that weren’t enough, the San Juan Capistrano-based side went two rounds in the state tournament.
Instead of taking a 23-1-1 record into the finals against San Marino, La Quinta’s season concluded at 22-2-1.
La Quinta’s Dan Armstrong, the athletic director, couldn’t have been more clear when he told the hometown paper, the Palm Springs Desert Sun, “I don’t know how anybody can go on (in the Division 5 playoffs) and, if it happens, think they’re going to be CIF champs when they got beat.
“They didn’t win it on the field. And Brielle didn’t play. We beat them with arguably our best player (out), and to think that you can get some kind of satisfaction out of that, I don’t know how people can do that.”
It was rapid fire disappointment.
Leon, incidentally, was a three-time All-Southern Section first rounder that wound up at Michigan State.
One season after that disgraceful exit, as Div. 5’s top seed, La Quinta shut down Citrus Hill-Perris, 4-0; Brentwood, 0-0, and advanced past Ocean View-Huntington Beach after a 1-1 draw was decided in a 4-1 penalty kick shootout.
But La Serna-Whittier stopped La Quinta in the semifinals.
Tabulating three seasons of playoff games: It’s 9-2 (counting the Santa Margarita match as a win), outscoring playoff teams by a 24-6 count in those 11 matches.
BACK TO BEAUMONT
Fast forward to 2015-2016 at Beaumont. It could have easily been forecast that La Quinta would walk away as tournament champions.
There were some tough teams, including Div. 6 finalist Paloma Valley-Menifee, plus Southern Section playoff teams Palm Desert, Valley View-Moreno Valley, Serrano, Vista Murrieta, Hemet and Tahquitz-Hemet also in the field.
Those teams allow goals, a factor that’s countered well by La Quinta.
“We are,” said Quattlebaum, whose team has won the Desert Valley League championship three straight seasons at 36 wins, two draws and no losses between 2012 and 2014, “very strong on the defensive side.”
From the looks of the Beaumont tournament, the Lady Eagles seem ready to keep that streak alive.
In its 4-0 win over Heritage, La Quinta held a team that totaled 46 goals last season without a score.
Hemet, which outscored opponents last season by a whopping 78-24 count, lost to La Quinta, 3-0.
Vista Murrieta, outscoring opponents by a 25-5 count already this season and 86-17 last season, didn’t allow a goal to La Quinta in a 0-0 draw – decided by an entertaining 10-9 shootout.
La Quinta defenders frustrated Vista Murrieta’s trio of scorers – Ashley Johnson (19 goals last season), Kiela Dualan and Deanne Gasca who have 10 goals through five matches this season. They produced in that 10-9 shootout, won by La Quinta.
Squaring off against Serrano, a 17-0 scoring advantage over previous opponents (78-14 last season), it took another shootout, 4-2, for La Quinta to prevail in the finals.
Serrano’s all-leaguer Noemi Salgado (13 goals last season) couldn’t do anything against Lady Blackhawk defenders. Neither could Amanda Munoz (8 goals) or Briana Wikert (7 goals).
Trying hard to deflect attacks and counter attacks in front of a sophomore goalie, Nicole Maler, are a predominantly junior class – Lyndsey Knowles, Kayleen Sullivan, Deyven Utter, Megan Ibarra, Karla Gonzalez and Taylor Doyle.
Throw in the lone senior, Jessica Montano, into that back line as well.
Quattlebaum’s been at La Quinta for years – 21-2-3 way back in 2006-2007 with winning records every single season, counting overall marks of 20-5-4, 22-2-1 and 23-6-1 the previous three seasons.
That La Quinta hasn’t notched itself a Southern Section title yet is likely due to strong playoff opposition – including Southern Section officials.
This year’s a different attempt.
“I think this year team can challenge again for the league title,” said Quattlebaum, referring to that 36-0-2 mark against Desert Valley League opposition for the past three seasons.
Said Quattlebaum: “Our goal is to make another long run in the playoffs.”
That “run” started in Beaumont on Dec. 3-5.
