For the first time since 1976, a team from the Lamorinda Soccer Club (LMSC) won a national title when in early March, their Under 14 team won the Girls Academy Champions Cup National Championship in Bradenton, Fla.

    All of the players are from Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda and the coach is Luis Pinto, the Campolindo head coach.

    Pinto’s game plan was simple: "We wanted to compete in each game and win all the small duels. We knew it was going to be tough match after tough match, and we were ready for that."

    After a 28-1-1 season, the team went to a December tournament in Norco, Calif., and finished in second, qualifying for the championship. The team went to Bradenton from March 5-10 as the ninth seed in a field of the top 16 Girls Academy clubs from across the country with LMSC winning all four of their games against higher seeded teams.

    In the first round, LMSC defeated the eighth seeded Utah Celtic 3-0, with 2 goals by Dahlia Hutchins and 1 by Olive Holmgren. The team would win their next three games 1-0 over first seeded FC United (Chicago) on a goal by Ximena Quezeda over fourth seeded HTX (Houston) on a last second goal off a corner kick by Maggie Watson and won the championship game over second seeded City SC (Carlsbad, Ca.) 7 minutes into the overtime period. 

    The goal in the championship game was particularly dramatic when Dahlia Hutchins received the ball on the left side of the field, drove forward, set her right foot, and sent a strike from the top of the box into the top right corner of the net.

    Pinto singled out Hutchins, the team’s center forward, Holmgren, holding midfielder, Boey Brooks, center back and Gianna Brown, the goalie, as the group he described as the spine of the team.

    With four straight shutouts, Brown would not allow the team to lose. “The security Gianna brought to our team with big saves allowed us to play with confidence and take risks, making us all the better for it,” Pinto said.

    Pinto summed it all up simply: “This championship is for all of the Lamorinda community.”