Oakdale girls soccer in first section final since 2011 after outlasting Manteca in shootout

Mia Peterson remembers the last time she made a penalty kick. She was a sophomore.

She used to take them regularly, but things changed quickly. She missed one kick and just like that, everything was different.

“I used to be the PK taker for my club team and this team and I missed one and then I got in my head and just lost my confidence on them,” Peterson said. “Last year, I was in the (PK) lineup and I told (head coach Kico Monares) to take me out.”

Friday night in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III semifinals against Manteca, Peterson stepped up as the last player to take a penalty kick for the No. 2 Oakdale girls soccer team. The Valley Oak League foes finished regulation and a pair of 10-minute overtime periods tied at a goal apiece. She stared at the ball positioned on the PK spot before firing a right-footed strike right down the middle of the goal. The ball squeaked under the top crossbar and found the back of the net.

“I was honestly just breathing in and out,” she said. “I haven’t made a PK in a very long time. But I knew as a captain, as a senior, I needed to step up and be one of the last people to take it.”

She let out a sigh of relief before being mobbed by her teammates. She sealed the 5-3 penalty shootout win and sent the Mustangs to their first section title match since 2011. They face Rio Americano on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Cosumnes River College.

Peterson came up big Friday night for her team while also shedding any leftover self-doubt. But what was equally important to her was the fact that as a senior, she made the most of an opportunity to be an example of the power of believing in yourself.

“My younger sister who’s on the team would never be the person to be like, ‘I wanna take a PK,’” Peterson said. “ So I want her to look and see even if you miss, it’s OK. Because everyone here knows I’ve missed and it makes me really nervous. But sometimes you just gotta step up and do it for your team.”

Each Mustang who attempted a PK scored, including keeper Avery Alves.

“I’ve never taken one before,” she said with a smile. “We’ve been practicing a lot this year, so our coach just picked the players he felt most confident in and then went from there.”

Alves came up big during the game, recording multiple saves, and came up bigger by scoring in the shootout. She will be credited with a save after a Manteca attempt in the shootout sailed over the top crossbar, putting Oakdale ahead by a goal.

“I was trying to drown everything out and try to pick one side or the other,” Alves said of playing in the goal during the shootout. “I try to be confident in myself and try to not second-guess anything.”

Battling through an injury

In the first half, Kyndra Obermeyer scored the Mustangs’ only goal of the match. She also made the first goal in the shootout.

Obermeyer’s goal was her 15th of the season, which is impressive for one year. What makes the number even more stunning is that she has played in just 11 games this year. She has been in and out of the lineup due to a leg muscle injury she suffered early in the season.

This was supposed to be her year. The Stan State signee exploded onto the scene as a junior, scoring 30 goals and winning VOL MVP in just her first full varsity season. She was off to a good start in her senior campaign, scoring four goals in her first few matches before being sidelined. She missed about a month and a half, including all but three league matches.

“It was awful,” Obermeyer said of sitting out. “Especially since it’s my senior year, knowing that this is my last season, I wanted to finish everything off.”

Others stepped up in her place. Freshman Dakota Burford leads the team with 19 goals and adds 10 assists. Peterson is among the top 15 in the section in assists with 14 helpers and a core of others helped fill in as needed.

“It was nice to be able to see a lot of players play a little bit more,” Obermeyer said. “They did a really good job at coming together when I wasn’t there. People playing on the outside and playing in the middle, they just did a really great job at keeping everything together.”

Obermeyer, Peterson and six other seniors have seen the attitude around girls soccer on campus change as the team has improved. Last season, the Mustangs won a league title and made it to the section semifinals. This year, they won back-to-back league titles for the first time ever and will play for a blue banner for the second time in school history.

Playing for a title

The journey to the championship match started at 5:20 a.m. in September.

Head coach Kico Monares had the team in the weight room for morning workouts, amped up the competition in nonleague tournaments and added film sessions to pregame preparations for moments like Friday night’s semifinal. He reminded them at halftime, before overtime and again before PK’s.

“This is why we did those trainings back in September,” he said of his message to the team. “When other players and other high school teams were sleeping or getting ready to go to school, we were in the weight room back in September. We had 17 returners. We expected to be here because of the hard work.

“I’ve told this team this is one of the best teams I’ve had in 13 years in coaching high school.”

The Mustangs play No. 4 Rio Americano Thursday after the Raiders upset top seed West Park Friday night, 1-0.

Monares says the Mustangs will enjoy the night and the semifinal win, but come Monday, it is back to work.

“I’ll probably go on NFHS and see how they play, start looking at tactics and then we will regroup on Monday,” he said. “They’ll have 48 hours to recover and we’ll come back, probably watch some film and and try to figure out how they play.”