“The defenders knew I love to go to my right,” she explained. “So I figured I should switch it up.”
DeGuzman beat one defender and then cut across the corner of the box. Finding a pocket of space, she ripped a left-footed cross toward the net. There, waiting at the back post, was teammate Tiana Cruz. The junior’s header gave the Sharks a 1-0 win and the first state title in program history.
“It’s all pretty surreal,” DeGuzman said. “To end your senior year with the first championship in team history? There’s no words for that.”
Cruz had entered the match as a substitute a few minutes earlier, hoping to contribute in a positive way to her team’s frustrated offensive attack.
“I just wanted to add a little bit of energy to the game,” Cruz said. “I saw the ball coming and tried to get my head on it. I thought I had put it over the bar.”
Her header did have some arc to it, but it was just enough to clear the outstretched arms of the Battlefield goalkeeper and drop in under the crossbar. Seconds later, Cruz was on the turf under a mound of joyous teammates.
This was the third meeting of the year between the Sharks (21-1-1) and the Bobcats (17-3-3). Colgan had defeated Battlefield, 4-0, in the Class 6 Region B final two weeks ago, but the Bobcats entered Sunday’s match riding a wave of resilience. Because of scheduling issues, Coach Kevin Hilton’s team was playing its third game in three days.
As Colgan dominated possession and peppered the goal with one shot after another, the Bobcats stood tall and kept the match scoreless.
“We knew this game was going to be like that,” Colgan Coach Tom Warzywak said. “They’re such a quality team. We may have broken them down in regionals, but we saw what they’ve had to do in three days, so we knew they wanted this badly. We just had to keep after it.”
When the goal came, Colgan could focusing on doing what it had done best all year: play defense. The Sharks surrendered just three goals this season, including one since a 2-1 loss to Forest Park on March 20. The back line, led by junior Kamryn Winger, was more than capable of finishing off the victory.
“We knew that some people have been expecting us to do this for a while,” Winger said of winning the title. “And we never let that get to us. It never made us nervous. It just made us want to do this more.”