WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – St. Francis fell into an early 2-0 hole and eventually lost by a 4-0 final to Carondelet in the first round of the CIF Northern California Division I girls' soccer championship at Carondelet Athletics Complex Tuesday afternoon.
The Troubadours, seeded seventh in the D-1 draw after finishing as the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-2 runners-up, end their season at 18-2-4. The Cougars, seeded No. 2 in the bracket and ranked fifth in the state by MaxPreps, improves to 20-2-1 for the season.
St. Francis managed just five shots for the game, including two from Jaycee DeFazio and Yasmin Azar. Senior goalkeeper Isabella De La Cruz saw plenty of action on the defensive end of the field, logging nine saves.
Carondelet enjoyed a hat trick from senior forward and Oregon Ducks commit Lauren Kenny. Junior Joy Casselman put the Cougs on the board in the fourth minute, then Kenny added scores in the 11th, 20th and 64th minutes.
Senior Micaela Romo finished the season as the team's leading scorer with 13 goals, with Azar and Caitlin Hafenstein tying for second with nine. Romo also had six assists for 32 total points, ahead of fellow senior DeFazio (8-11-27). Romo and DeFazio each signed with NCAA Division I programs last fall: Romo with Saint Mary's, DeFazio with UC Santa Barbara.
Oddly, Carondelet's second-round opponent will be Del Oro, which upset St. Francis in the CIF-SJS title game one week earlier. The Golden Eagles won their first-round contest in a 4-3 shootout against Mountain View after the two teams played to a 1-1 impasse through two halves and two overtime frames.
Top-seeded Saint Francis of Mountain View beat San Ramon Valley, 1-0; while Menlo-Atherton blanked Clovis North by a similar score in the 5-v-4 matchup.
