Sherry's hat trick scores historic win, Cabrillo advances to CIF title game

Posted: Feb 26, 2013 5:49 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Feb 26, 2013 7:23 PM

Sherry scores hat-trick, Cabrillo advances to first-ever CIF championship game

Kesley Sherry completed her first-career hat-trick as part of an historic victory for the Cabrillo girls soccer team on Tuesday. The Conquistadores beat visiting San Marino in a Division 5 semifinal to advance to the championship game for the first time in program history. The Lady Conqs improved to 16-7-4 and finally won a semifinal game after losing in the semis in 2011 and 2012.

The Conquistadores wasted no time getting on the board. Audriana La Porte dribbled inside the box in the fourth minute and sent a pass to Carley Chatterley. The sophomore, who scored the game-winner in the quarterfinals, fired but her shot was deflected away by the diving San Marino goalie. Sherry, a senior forward, raced to the loose ball and booted it to the back of the net. Cabrillo led 1-0 just four minutes in. The San Marino goalie was injured on the play and left the game for the rest of the first half. The injured keeper was the second-stringer, who replaced the starting goalie when she went down with an injury in the second round. That meant a third-string goalie was summoned from the bench.

Just four minutes later, the Conquistadores were on the attack again. Audriana La Porte sent a high arcing ball that caromed by the defenders. Sherry sprinted to the ball and buried the ball into the open net after the goalie tried to beat her to the ball several yards away from the net. Cabrillo took a commanding 2-0 lead just eight minutes in and carried that advantage into the second half.

San Marino scored less than ten minutes into the second half to make it a 2-1 game. Cabrillo answered with a goal midway through the half when Brianna Farley again flicked the ball over the San Marino back line of defenders. Sherry sprinted to the ball and beat the charging goalie to it sending it into the open goal to complete the hat-trick.

The Conquistadores face top seeded La Serna in the D5 title game. The CIF Southern Section Office will release the finals schedule on Wednesday morning.The Conquistadores will play either Friday or Saturday at Corona High or Warren High School. La Serna edged La Quinta 3-2 in the semifinals. La Serna is the same team that beat Cabrillo in the semifinals last year.