Settled into system, Titans are a soccer force

By: SCOTT BAIR - Staff Writer | Monday, December 19, 2005 9:15 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- There was an adjustment period after Jenn Lalor took over the Poway High girls soccer team. The Titans' raw talent made them successful at times last season, but an unfamiliarity with the coach's style kept them from achieving greatness.

This season, however, the Titans are comfortable with their assignments. More important, they have faith in the system.

The subsequent results have been spectacular. Poway, which lost only two impact players from last season's roster, has dominated most competition this year.

The No. 2-ranked Titans continued their streak of excellent play with a 3-2 victory over No. 6 Fallbrook in the El Capitan Tournament on Monday afternoon at Patrick Henry High. Poway advanced to today's semifinals against Torrey Pines at El Capitan High.

"I find that I'm not teaching as much as fine tuning this year," Lalor said. "This is my second season with the team, and I think they're really starting to get a hang of the system."

The system, which is based upon maintaining possession, finding open space and pushing the ball up the wings, produced a number of quality chances against the Warriors (4-2).

Laura Hogan converted on two of them in the second half. The first, which broke a 1-1 tie, came on a picturesque cross from Allie Lopez. The second, which proved to be the game-deciding goal, came courtesy of Hogan's fancy footwork.

The Titans (8-1-1) worked the ball up the wing before Hogan received the ball. Instead of shooting immediately, Hogan created some space with a juke and then drove the ball home.

Poway's opening goal exemplified the Titans' improved understanding of Lalor's orders. It came in the ninth minute off of a corner kick. Katy Roby made a short pass to Nicole Petracca outside the box, who sent a shot to the far post. Kara Duggan then snuck in the back door and redirected the shot into the goal.

"We used that play last year, but it rarely worked," Lalor said. "The goal is to shoot toward the far post. There are so many people in the box that, even if there's a deflection, something good can happen."

The Warriors' attack was missing some key components.

Forward Natalie Ratnavira and outside midfielder Alex Zeringue missed the game, forcing Fallbrook coach Ted Small to rearrange his starting lineup. His bench, which was depleted thanks to an teamwide illness, was only two deep.

The Warriors did their best with what they had, scoring in the 36th minute on a free kick from Jessica Almendarez and in the 80th minute on a penalty kick by Katie Seeger.

"For as weak as we were, this is not a bad result," Small said. "We had girls playing out of position, and we didn't have many players on the bench. I had to change my lineup around quite a bit, but we did the best we could given the circumstances."

Contact staff writer Scott Bair at (760) 739-6642 or sbair@nctimes.com.