Westminster Christian to play for regional title
On a muddy, mucky field, speed could easily be negated.
But not Westminster Christina's Ishmael Yemoah's speed.
The Warriors' senior dribbled past five North Shore Country Day defenders over three-quarters of the field to score the go-ahead goal in Saturday's 3-2 victory in the Class 1A Westminster Christian soccer regional semifinal.
"I'm pretty fast," said Yemoah, who is an exchange student from Ghana. "I took it, ran across, and just shot it."
The Warriors (14-3-1) now move on to Tuesday's regional final at 4 p.m. against Harvard, a 6-4 winner over Northridge Prep. Yemoah's goal gave the Warriors a new school record for wins at 14.
"Ishmael has been a blessing to our school this year," Westminster coach Mike Richardson said. "Sometimes he just does things to make a coach look great."
Twice in the first half Westminster Christian was able to take a lead and both times defensive mistakes allowed North Shore (10-5-2) to come back and tie the game. The second goal came when Zack Young caught a rebound off Westminster goalkeeper Scott Sutarik's deflection of Ivan Ramirez' shot.
Young drilled the ball past Sutarik (3 saves) to tie the game at 2 with 7 seconds left in the first half.
The only 2 shots North Shore took in the first half went for goals. Westminster, on the other hand, pounded out 2 goals on 10 first-half shots. Ryan Beachler put the Warriors up 2-1 when he drilled an unassisted 25-yard bomb, which to the surprise of even him, went to the top right corner of the net.
The goal came after Ramirez had tied the game at 1-1. With 17:11 left in the first half. Beachler got Westminster on the boards early when he scored just 7 minutes, 29 seconds into the game. The senior captain took a pass from his brother Josh Beachler and sent it to the top left corner of the net past goalkeeper Kevin Malpede (10 saves).
"We got that first goal and them (some guys) thought it was going to be easy," Beachler said. "North Shore played really hard. They gave it their all."