Piedmont High School’s girls soccer team fell 2-0 to Pinole Valley at Witter Field on Feb. 22 in the North Coast Section Division 4 playoffs.
The Highlanders, who were seeded No. 1 in the backet, finish the season at 7-10-2. The eighth-seeded Spartans (12-9-1) advance to the semifinals where they will play at No. 4 Sonoma Valley on Feb. 26.
Chantelle Tejada and Jayla Quintanilla scored the goals for Pinole Valley. Tejada’s came in the waning moments of the first half. Pinole Valley got a chance in front of the net and at first it looked like the play had shut down. But goalkeeper Friedie Schickedanz mishandled the ball and Tejada, who had not turned to head back upfield, put the ball in.
“I always anticipate the goalie will drop it and we’ve just got to put that final ball away,” Tejada said.
Coming in stoppage time before the half was just a gut-punch to the Highlanders. In the second half, with their season on the line, Piedmont tried to get its offense going but just couldn’t put together a sustained attack.
“We didn’t really get going,” Highlanders coach Dan Chubbock said. “I would say they had two chances and we had zero. That was the game right there. We couldn’t get the ball out in the middle, we were trying to force long balls.”
Credit the Pinole Valley defense. “We stuck to our game plan,” Spartans coach Jonathan Esmenjaud said. “That was our key to our success. We followed it to a T. The girls believed in it. We were able to frustrate our opponent and save our legs on such a big field.
“We were sort of gambling for us to go up first and continue to our plan to try to hold them to a scoreless game.”
Pinole Valley goalkeeper Yvette Torres was called upon to make a couple and also took a kick to the face on one play. Esmenjaud noted that Torres is on the El Salvador national U17 team. “She has been fundamental to us for three years,” he said of the junior. “She has a bright future ahead of her.”
Piedmont’s Miranda Liu (13) and Pinole Valley’s Lexi Faust (8) eye the ball as the close in on it during an NCS playoff game. 
Louisa Symkowick (19) prepares to kick the ball with teammages Chloe Toyama (4) and Kyra Trombi (18) and Pinole Valley’s Mariela Renteria Ortega (11) and Jayla Quintanilla (3) surrounding.
Piedmont did get Miranda Liu back, who was playing club ball most of the high school season. Kyla Williams and Ryo Woltag did their best to get runs going. But the Highlanders never could find the net.
In the 70th minute, a direct kick led to Quintanilla scoring on a rebound. “That right there was our winning goal,” Tejada said. “Anything can happen but I knew that this game was ours from there on out.”
Chubbock said that despite the injuries and missed time, he enjoyed coaching this team. “It has been an enjoyable year,” he said. “We had a great group of girls. They kept plugging away, definitely the cards didn’t fall in their favor in terms of injuries and sickness. That was tough…we kept going. We got ourselves into a good position to qualify for NCS.”