When Rachel Nelson scored her fifth goal of the game to give Cabrillo an 8-5 lead, several members of the big crowd thought the game was in the bag.

But the Louisville Royals had other ideas.

With Katie Mulflur scoring three of the last four goals of the game, the Royals roared back and defeated the CIF defending champs 9-8 in a thriller at the Lompoc Aquatic Center on Thursday afternoon.

“You can see how quickly the tide can turn and how things can turn on you,” said Cabrillo coach Corey McIntyre. “Our youth kind of showed up at the end. You take one or two plays off and that's the difference in a one-goal game.”

Even leading 8-5, McIntyre knew the game was not over.

“You never feel comfortable in any game until it's over,” he explained. “Louisville had no give up in them at all.”

“I don't think that we've ever played the defending champs in anything at our school, so that was pretty intense for them,” said Louisville coach Andy Walsh. “But we just took it as one game at a time - don't worry about what they did last year - it's this year.”

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And this year the Royals have done well against Central Coast teams. In first round action, Louisville defeated Nipomo 11-3, before riding up the coast to Lompoc for Thursday's match.

McIntyre thought perhaps that first round game helped Louisville coming into the game.

“I'm not always a fan of the bye week,” McIntyre said. “They got an opportunity to get up and down the pool, shake the jitters off and we then come off with a tough match-up.

“But it's our home pool and we're supposed to defend - and we didn't get it done.”

The game started off with both defenses playing tough. No one scored until 2:05 remained in the first quarter. Each goalie had to make only one save each up to that point.

Liz Leoni scored for the Royals to take a 1-0 lead, but Ashlea Coski scored 25 seconds later to tie the game up. With 40 seconds remaining, Nelson flipped in a backhand shot to give the Conquistadores their first lead.

Nelson scored 15 seconds into the second quarter, making the score 3-1 in favor of Cabrillo, but Louisville rolled off the next three goals to move in front 4-3 at the half. All three goals were long floaters that went over the head of the second quarter goalie for Cabrillo, Laura Reinecher. Nelson had two shots ricochet off the crossbar in the first half, which was a precursor to the fourth quarter.

“In the first quarter we definitely put a lot of pressure on them where they couldn't do many things,” McIntyre said. “Then we relaxed a little bit, took the pressure off and they ate us up for three quick ones.”

In the third quarter, it was Cabrillo's turn to have a run as Nelson, Coski and Phoebe Huggins scored in a span of three minutes to put the Conqs up 6-4. The team traded goals to close out the quarter and Cabrillo led 7-5.

“We knew we could keep up with them,” Walsh said. “We just had to keep up that intensity that we had in the first half.

“I thought what got us here was our schedule. We have 11 losses but only two of them have been by more than two goals.”

Even after Mulflur and Leoni scored to pull the Royals to within 8-7, Cabrillo had the opportunity to pull away. But Nelson hit the crossbar once more.

Moments later, Mulflur scored on another long floater to tie the game at eight. Again Nelson had a clear shot that went off the crossbar for the fourth time in the game.

With 1:20 remaining, Mulflur streaked in from the outside, took a pass in close and scored the game winner, her fourth goal of the match.

When Nelson hit the crossbar for the fifth time, Louisville needed to only hold the ball and run all but five seconds off the clock for the win.

“We barred three at the end and they made three at the end,” shrugged McIntyre. “It's definitely earlier out than we anticipated, because when you get to those next rounds it builds momentum to next year.

“For a lot of girls it was their first time to play in a CIF game and the better run you get each year builds up your program and your players.”

And as disappointed as he was for his team, McIntyre was appreciative of his team's effort.

“I just want to thank the seniors for all of their hard work,” he stated, “and we'll be back.”

Feb. 15, 2008