Sage’s super soccer Tuesday

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — For Sage Hill School, Tuesday wasn’t just Super, it was epic.

For the first time in school history, the Lightning girls’ soccer team defeated archrival St. Margaret’s, ending the Tartans’ 10-game unbeaten streak.

The 1-0 Tuesday night win is likely to decide the Academy League champion, though both schools have one more game left in the regular season. Sage Hill (11-8-2, 8-0-1 in league) will play the Whitney Wildcats, who it defeated, 4-0, Jan. 14, on Thursday. St. Margaret’s (11-6-2, 7-1-1) will play at Oxford Academy.

Harvard-bound senior Kellee Kim kicked the game-winning goal for Sage Hill, an indirect free kick with 7:10 left.

The official blew the whistle for the kick, but there was some confusion because Sage Hill wasn’t sure if the kick was direct or indirect, and Coach Chino Cid was yelling at Kim not to touch the ball first.

The official blew the whistle again, and freshman Megan Kim ran forward for the first touch. As the wall of St. Margaret’s blockers diffused to defend her, Kellee had just enough of a hole to send the ball past goalkeeper Valerie Gilmore.

“You can’t give Kellee Kim a chance like that,” St. Margaret’s Coach Johnny Marmelstein said. “I’m not dumb. I mean, she’s the one going to Harvard, but I could figure that one out. Give Kellee Kim a chance like that and she’s going to bury you. She took advantage of the situation. But that’s soccer.”

The elder Kim stayed for a few moments of celebratory crying, hugging and shrieking before rushing off back to Newport Coast to assume her duties as assistant director of Sage Hill’s production of “Cinderella.” The musical opens Thursday night.

It was a fairy-tale win for the undersized Lightning, who had a special appearance from starting sophomore goalkeeper Hannah MacLeod.

MacLeod started suffering back spasms at the beginning of the season, which progressively worsened. She hadn’t practiced in two weeks, and only played in one game since Sage Hill tied the Tartans, 0-0, Jan. 14.

“Right now it’s actually killing me,” MacLeod said following the game. “All I wanted to do is win this game. I don’t care — we have a game [Thursday] — I’m not playing in that. All I wanted to do was play this game.”

The Tartans outshot the Lightning, 9-4, in the first half, and overwhelmingly controlled ball possession. MacLeod had eight of her 12 saves in the first half.

“She killed it,” senior defender Carolyn Witte said. “She stepped up and saved our team. She is our team.”

But Cid, the Lightning’s interim head coach, adjusted during the break, moving one of his forwards back and so five girls were playing midfield. Finding a way to limit senior striker Jamie Schiffer was crucial to the Lightning’s success, especially since St. Margaret’s leaned on her for goals in past rivalry games. Schiffer overshot the goal on two attempts in the beginning of the second half from about 35 yards out. With a slightly lighter touch, they might have been scores, and that was exactly what Cid wanted to eliminate.

“We didn’t want to give them those shots,” Cid said. “In the past, they’ve been lethal on those shots, and we have lost two out of the last three years on that shot. So we literally packed the middle with five players and just had one forward and hoping we could work our way up with just the midfielders.”

Witte was charged with marking Schiffer, who had scored on her in previous games, and the Lightning double-teamed her nearly every time her foot touched the ball.

“It was really interesting because we’re both captain and I’ve marked her since my sophomore year, so we’ve had some history” Witte said. “She was the girl we shut down. She was hurt last year, but we knew coming back she was the girl we had to worry about. We did everything we could. If I dove in or missed a ball, my whole team was behind me to make sure we had her covered.”

Sage Hill head coach Amy Ray, who is officially on maternity leave, was sitting on the Lightning bench during the game. Cid took over head coaching duties while Ray has been on leave.

“Nothing against the current coaches, but I had promised Coach Amy that I wouldn’t lose until she came back so she could be the first Sage coach to beat me,” said Marmelstein, who vowed St. Margaret’s would defeat Sage Hill if the two teams meet in the postseason. “I publicly apologize to Coach Amy ’cause I let it go.”

It was a super ending for a team of girls with only one player old enough to vote — Kim. The last regular-season game Thursday against Whitney will likely end up just being a blip this week for Sage Hill after Tuesday’s milestone.

“We’re not a very deep team and we killed St. Margaret’s for the first time ever,” Witte said. “We’ve had more talented teams in terms of skill in past years, but this team was different. We’re so tight. We’re so bonded. We did this as a team and I’m so proud of every single girl.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].