Yorba Linda stuns San Luis Obispo with controversial late goal to knock Tigers out of playoffs

Most San Luis Obispo fans walking out of Holt Field were shaking their heads, not sure what they just saw. After slipping past its last two playoff opponents with late-game heroics and playing 26-straight games without a loss, the SLO High girls soccer team was on the other end after a controversial non-call led to a late goal by Yorba Linda and a 2-1 loss Tuesday night in the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 semifinal.

Deep into stoppage time, San Luis Obispo’s Grace Park looked to be through on a breakaway, but a pair of Yorba Linda defenders bracketed her and she went down, doing a full front flip before coming to a stop. The home crowd roared, but the referee and assistant said play on.

Yorba Linda went on the immediate offensive, and a few passes later, Jacquelyn Dunlap scored the winning goal a few minutes before the referee blew the final whistle.

After the game, San Luis Obispo coach Leslie O’Connor confronted the referee on the field, said a few calm words, and shook his hand.

“I just said, ‘Did you not see?’ ” O’Connor said. “He said, ‘From my angle it just looked like they tangled feet.’ I said, ‘Tangled feet? My girl spun her, she’s going away to the goal and all of a sudden she gets taken out.’ ”

“It’s tough.”

Yorba Linda coach Greg Aviles said it was hard for him to get a good view of the play on the opposite side of the field.

“It was back and forth, I think he was pretty consistent,” Aviles said. “(The referee) didn’t call some fouls against us, and it was probably unfortunate the timing, maybe the missed call. But you know what I think? Both teams left it all on the field.”

After a scoreless first half, the pace picked up quickly in the final 15 minutes of the second half. San Luis Obispo scored first on a 15-yard shot from Elena Kraemer with about seven minutes to go. Early in stoppage time, Yorba Linda’s Brooke Morris evened the score after SLO failed to clear it.

SLO kept pressing the issue with free kicks in the final minutes, and it looked like the Tigers would either score or play another overtime. Then Park went down.

“Overall, it was a game of inches,” O’Connor said.

As the team filed out of the locker room, some players were still crying. But they will have another chance in the state tournament to rekindle the streak.

SLO will play next Tuesday in the regionals. A time and seed will be released Sunday.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 8:51 PM with the headline "Yorba Linda stuns San Luis Obispo with controversial late goal to knock Tigers out of playoffs."