When the lights were brightest, Hart senior striker Alexis Nguyen shined brighter.
Nguyen registered a hat trick in the SoCal Division 2 girls’ soccer championships on Saturday to help lift her team to a 4-2 victory over the visiting San Marcos Knights, in her final high school game.
“I think it being the last game, it was kind of just one of those leave-it-out-on-the-field things,” Nguyen said. “It was like that for our whole team. We wanted to just finish it out and play as strong as we can.”
Hart (19-2-5) has accomplished everything and then some that the team has set out for. Now the team finishes its season at the mountaintop with a ton of hardware.
Nguyen couldn’t have picked a better time for a three-goal performance, but also coming in clutch for Hart was senior defender Charlotte Curtis, who scored her first goal of the season on Saturday.
Midfielder Natalie Mejia found Curtis on the far post off a corner kick, where the defender was just able to tap in the opening score of the championship match.
“It was incredible,” Curtis said. “It was really exciting because I feel like we’ve worked so hard this entire season playing in the back. I don’t get many chances so having the first goal in such an important game is really exciting.”
Hart had been scored on just once so far in the playoffs, and only twice in the calendar year. San Marcos (15-12-3) became the third team all year to score two on the Indians thanks to some accurate crosses and strong play on the wings.
Knights captain Ava Bynes tied the game with a long 30-yard cross that just snuck into the back of the net.
Bynes and teammate Samantha Amato gave the Indians some trouble on the left wing. The two were typically parts of big runs down the left side and a bulk of passes landing right in front of the Hart goal. The Indians’ defense has felt tested here and there throughout the playoffs but was ready for the challenge.
“We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a tough one,” Curtis said. “They have a lot of great players and we were just really just doing what we’ve been doing all season, working hard and just covering each other.”
Hart goalkeeper Laura Brennan was also up for the challenge and made three key saves to keep Hart in good shape.
Nguyen took over the game shortly after the equalizer. Showcasing her athleticism, Nguyen worked her defender one-on-one, and created space for the 2-1 strike.
Mejia registered her second assist of the day, finding Nguyen for another score just before halftime.
San Marcos nearly answered as Amato put another cross right in the middle of the box but Hart cleared it out.
The Indians appeared a little more conservative in the second half, working on defense to protect their 3-1 lead.
However, San Marcos senior Luca Puccio made some nice moves on the left wing and fired in the Knights’ second goal of the day at the 64-minute mark.
Suddenly, the momentum shifted and Hart shot right back on the attack. It took less than a minute for Nguyen to erase that momentum as she fired in her third goal of the day to seal it for Hart.
Indians head coach Brett Croft has seen his UC San Diego-commit Nguyen play lights-out before but could tell just before the game his striker was ready for the moment.
“You could see in warmups, she was on,” Croft said. “In our good old triangle of death, usually one of them steps up. So today was Lexi’s day and she stepped up. The level of change of speed and change of direction that Lexi has, I don’t know how long it’ll be ’til we see another female soccer player like that. Obviously, she’s going Division 1 for a reason.”
The Indians held on to finish their season atop the Foothill League, Southern Section and the state.
“I don’t know if we had this all envisioned,” Nguyen said. “We knew we were gonna have a strong squad but once we started the season, we knew we had such an amazing, talented group of people and we did it. Everyone put in the work and worked hard. There wasn’t one person that didn’t.
Hart had aspirations of accomplishing everything they’ve done but it still was a lot to absorb.
“It’s hard to kind of process right now with everything that’s going on for me,” Croft said. “All I ever wanted is for the girls to see their work, effort and energy the girls put in come to fruition. And they’ve seen that three different times. These girls now will all go off and do great things but they can always come back to Santa Clarita 10-20 years from now and see that they’re that team.”
The team will graduate 13 seniors, with a ton of soccer still in front of them. Croft has coached a handful of some of his seniors long before their days in a Hart jersey.
“A lot of those girls, including Char, I’ve coached since they were 10 years old,” Croft said. “So, this is a lot of emotion here. But that group, I don’t even know if there’s words. Not only are they incredible soccer players, they’re some of my favorite people on the planet. I’m just happy they let me tag along for the ride.”
San Marcos will also send its fair share of players into collegiate play. The team’s leading scorer, Gabrielle Prych, will head to Michigan while Bynes is committed to San Jose State.
As for Hart’s seniors, it will be tough to leave everything they’ve built behind. However, the team will still rest easy knowing they’re one of the most accomplished teams to ever play for the powerhouse program.
“It’s just amazing and I’m just so glad I can be a part of it,” Nguyen said. “I just can’t believe that I’m part of such an amazing group. I think that this was just such a good squad and there’s so much chemistry. I’m glad that we could get where we are today, it feels amazing. I can’t express how happy I am with it and just how hard it’s gonna be to leave all this behind, but I couldn’t be happier with how it ended.”
