Calvary Chapel Downey’s Deborah Larsen (2) pulls away from Loma Linda Academy defenders in their girls soccer match at Rancho Los Amigos Sports Center on Tuesday. Calvary Chapel defeated Loma Linda Academy 4-1. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

Off to its best start in years, the Calvary Chapel Downey High School girls soccer team won its fifth consecutive game to start the season Tuesday, Dec. 10, with a 4-1 win over the visiting Loma Linda Academy Roadrunners in a nonleague game played at Rancho Los Amigos Center in Downey.

They also opened Academy League action on Thursday (Dec. 5) with a come-from-behind, 5-4 win over Tarbut V’ Torah.

Calvary Chapel continues nonleague action Thursday (Dec. 12) at Workman (0-5). Results were not available due to press deadlines.

Calvary Chapel will begin pool play in the “Best of the West” Tournament, which has about 80 teams in sites all over So Cal, Saturday (Dec. 14) with games against Savanna (9:30 am) and San Gabriel (3:30 pm) at Cabrillo high.

Not only are the Grizzlies undefeated, but they are also scoring at a frenzied pace with 34 goals. Leading the pack is senior forward Sarah Masterson (6 assists) with 10 goals, followed by junior midfielder Jaedyn Aldaz and sophomore forward Bella Zimbron with eight goals each.

In addition, the defense has recorded two shutouts and two games with one goal allowed each, led by senior goalie Ashley Zuniga (16 saves on the season).

Aldaz, Masterson and Zuniga are all captains for the Grizzlies.

“If you practice hard and you’re blessed to get a victory, I always tell the girls, ‘soccer is fun, but when you win, it’s a lot more fun,” Calvary Chapel coach Kenny Rogers said. “That’s what’s happening with the 5-0 record. They’re all happy and they’re having fun and their battle-tested, so we’re ready for a tough tournament.

“There’s a lot of good teams and good brackets.”

Leading the defense for the Grizzlies is senior Caylie Flores and junior Mia Villa.

“Mia plays a stopper position and Caylie is more of a sweeper,” said Rogers, who has been the head coach for over ten years at different times. “Together they are very good and individually on their own they are good soccer players. They can also play up top if needed.

“Sarah (Masterson) is a solid player and can play any position on the field. She’s a fantastic player.”

Not playing in the game on Tuesday was Zimbron, who is another one of the offensive leaders.

“We’re a really small school and we have a good bond together and in the game, we just click,” said Zimbron, who transferred in from Long Beach Millikan after her freshman year. “We are all together with God.

“I think going forward we just have to focus on the moment and not let the past how we feel.”

In the win over Loma Linda (3-5), the first half was controlled by the Grizzlies, especially at the defensive end led by Villa and Flores.

“We are all really good friends, and I really love defense,” Villa said. When I first started playing, I was a forward, but during COVID I swapped to defense. I liked it a lot. If we don’t let them score, we win.”

After a lot of back and forth by both teams, Calvary broke through with the first goal by Masterson at the 12-minute mark on a cross from sophomore forward Deborah Larsen.

Four minutes later, Aldaz took a shot and scored for the 2-0 lead.

“It was a long shot, and I just moved out into the space and I saw it and it was far and I just thought I might as well take it,” explained Aldaz. “It was outside the 18.

“It really feels like God has blessed this team.”

Aldaz’ mom, Marisol is an assistant to Rogers. “It’s really fun and I feel stressed most of the time, but I really love having her there.”

Four minutes after the Aldaz goal, Zuniga made a nice stop on a breakaway by Roadrunners junior forward Ava Egger.

The only yellow of the contest came a couple of minutes later as Larsen was tripped up by Loma Linda’s Ymani Williams.

After a Roadrunners corner kick that went off the pole, Masterson took a cross from Aldaz at the 26-minute mark to lead, 3-0. “I just got an inside foot on it,” Masterson said.

Masterson, in her fourth year on varsity explained how the team has evolved in her four years.

“Starting out in my freshman year, we won very few games and didn’t have much unity and didn’t bond enough,” she said. “From the last two years, we started to get more involved with each other and learned the basics of soccer.

“(Coach Rogers) helped us and brought the team to a better light.

“Last year we got to CIF and got second in league, which was something that we haven’t seen in a long time. This year we are starting off 5-0 and won our first league game. We haven’t won a league title since 2004, which was 20 years ago.”

Loma Linda broke the shutout with a late goal in the first half on a counter attack goal at 35 minutes to trail, 3-1.

The only goal in the second half was by the Grizzlies, as Larsen had a break away from the Loma Linda defense and scored in minute 64 to lead, 4-1.

Calvary Chapel 5, Tarbut V’ Torah 4

After host Tarbut took a 2-0 lead on the first of four goals by sophomore forward Jadyn Levy, Zimbron (16 min) and Larsen (31 min) evened the score at 2-2.

Loma Linda opened with a second-half goal to lead, 3-2, but consecutive goals by Aldaz (Larsen) and Zimbron (Masterson) gave the lead back to the Grizzlies, 4-3, but the Roadrunners tied the game at 4-4.

The game winner by Zimbron gave the Grizzlies their final lead, 5-4, on an assist by Larsen.

“That was our first league game,” said Rogers, of the Tarbut win. “We had to go on the road to Tarbut, which is a really good team and strong.

“They got up on us, 2-0, right away. We pulled it out, 5-4. It was good for the girls to go through that after three relatively easy victories to battle their first league game and come back.”

Leading goal scorers in the first three games for Calvary were: Aldaz (5) and Masterson (4) in the 15-0 win over John Glenn; Zimbron (2) and Larsen in a 3-0 shutout over Rancho Alamitos and Masterson (4), the 7-1 win over Bassett.

PMA football wins CIF State So Cal Championship

With four explosive touchdowns and a tough defense, the Warriors advanced to the CIF State Championship with a 28-7 win over St. Augustine Saturday, Dec. 7.

Junior quarterback Jassi Williams threw touchdown passes of 56 yards (Jaylen Stokes), 39 yards (Greg Taylor) and 62 yards (Demari Nunley). The fourth touchdown come on a pick six by Trayce Mallard.

St. Augustine scored a late TD with 8 seconds left in the game.

The defense recorded four sacks in the game and held the Diamondbacks on four of 17 third down attempts and 3 of 5 fourth down attempts.

The first two St. Augustine drives resulted in a forced fumble and an interception by defensive end Marcus Ball.

The Warriors advanced to the state title game Saturday Dec. 14 at 3 pm against Sonora of Northern California. The game will be played at Long Beach City College.

Calvary Chapel girls soccer off to 5-0 start