Pleasant Hill girls soccer team wins first-ever state title

By Jimmy Gillispie

FULTON — Not only did the Pleasant Hill girls soccer team win its first-ever state championship, it did so with ease in the title game earlier this month.

After winning a nail biter in overtime in the semifinals, Pleasant Hill crushed Clayton, 5-0, in the championship match.

“I’ve said it a couple times before, but this group just has a different mentality,” coach Edson Ortiz said. “They weren’t going to take no for an answer and they weren’t going to be denied.”

Senior Haley Dimarco scored all five of the goals in the title match. She ended her season with a career high for goals in a season with 40. Ortiz said the Chicks took only five shots in the match.

The victory over Clayton avenged last year’s semifinal loss. Clayton beat Pleasant Hill in a penalty kick shootout after both teams finished regulation and overtime scoreless. 

Clayton went on to win the championship a day later. Pleasant Hill defeated Logan-Rogersville, 4-2, and finished third at state a year ago.

Dimarco was extra motivated to beat Clayton. In last year’s semifinal game, she had a shot on goal about 12 minutes into the match, and kicked it right at the goalkeeper.

“We were motivated for sure,” Ortiz said. “The feelings from last year were still there. Haley was especially motivated. For one, she’s special and she’s very good at what she does.

“Multiple times during the past year, she has brought it up to me how she still thinks about that,” Ortiz added. “It was in the back of her head. She would tell me she used the wrong technique and she should have gone low instead of high and we would have advanced. It was weighing on her.”

The Chicks had reached the state semifinals six other times since 2018, but had lost their semifinal game every year. This year, the Chicks, who had won 18 games in a row entering the semifinals, wouldn’t be denied.

“That was the biggest step for us,” Ortiz said. “As a program, this had been attempted seven times and we had never been able to get past that match.”

They fell behind Springfield Catholic, 1-0, in the first half. However, the Chicks scored the equalizer with 28 minutes left the second half. Dimarco scored the game-tying goal.

In overtime, a long pass was headed toward the goal by DiMarco. The Springfield Catholic goalkeeper dove to make the save, but couldn’t secure the ball. 

Pleasant Hill junior Kaydence Paschall quickly booted the loose ball across the goal and into net, scoring the golden goal and sending her team to the title match. She was greeted with a dogpile of teammates.

“The great thing for me as the coach is we trained that,” Ortiz said. “We don’t want to give up any ball for being lost. It was a ball one of our defenders put into a general area. Haley made a decision that she was going to try and do something with it. She got just enough of a touch to make the keeper move.”

The Chicks ended the season with a 25-2 record. They won their final 20 games of the season. They also allowed only 0.6 goals per game, allowing only one goal in the final nine matches of the season.