The562’s high school soccer coverage for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Long Beach Poly soccer alum Kennedy Justin.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
There might not be a moment too big for Millikan goalkeeper Samantha Ortiz, and there certainly wasn’t one Thursday night against Ayala.
After watching her teammates deliver game-winner after game-winner through these playoffs, it was finally Ortiz’s opportunity to deliver the final blow. The junior led Millikan to its 13th straight clean sheet after 95 scoreless minutes on Thursday, and there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt as she headed into goal to begin the PK shootout.
Ortiz rose to the moment on Ayala’s opening kick, diving right to make a one-handed save and give Millikan an early lead in the shootout. After each team missed once, Millikan went on to convert three straight to seal a 4-2 win on penalties, defeating Ayala in a rematch of the CIF-SS championship to punch its ticket to the CIF State Division 3 semifinals.
“I was so really excited because everyone’s had their chance to come up big for us and have their goal-scoring moment but I haven’t really had the chance to prove to my team that I have their backs too,” said Ortiz, who finished with 10 total saves. “Once I got the save it was so much weight off my shoulders and I was just excited. I could not believe it.”
“Defensively we’ve done a great job, but it doesn’t always show what she’s capable of.” Millikan coach Tino Nunez said of Ortiz. “That first PK shot was something else. It set the tone and she finally got her moment.”
After an opening PK make from Gissel Fang and Ortiz’s save, Millikan’s Sarah Thaut and Caoimhe Tighe then drilled back-to-back shots that were matched by consecutive makes from Ayala’s Mikayla Benavidez and Ella Salas. Millikan junior Furby Rios then stepped up with a chance to finish it and drilled one straight down the middle as the Rams rushed the field to celebrate.
“I was just nervous knowing that we would win if I make it or we keep going if I don’t,” Rios said of her decisive shot. “It was just very scary at the moment but in the end I made it and it feels good to take that pressure off myself and the whole team.”
Ayala brought everything you would expect from a team looking to avenge its CIF championship loss and put pressure on Millikan’s defense early on. The Bulldogs outshot the Rams 13-4 in the opening half, including nine shots on frame as Ortiz finished with five saves in just the first half.
Millikan found plenty more opportunities in the second half and benefited from a busy night at the corner flags, where the Rams had 10 total corner kicks while Ayala had five. Millikan had six of those corners in the second half and overtime, which helped them generate four more looks at goal compared to three from Ayala.
“I think we just needed to play a bit more loose and be ourselves,” Nunez said of the second half. “I think we needed to just work harder and have each other back, and we needed to connect the second pass. We had a couple moments where we finally started doing that, and that’s when you saw a couple more chances there.”
The Rams thought they had scored on one of those chances in the 74th minute, as a deep set piece ricocheted off the Bulldogs’ goalkeeper before Alani Rodriguez slotted one away from ten yards out with her left foot. The referees met while Millikan celebrated, eventually calling off the goal after ruling there had been a foul before the shot.
Nunez was visibly frustrated by the controversial call and said the referees initially reported the foul on a jersey number that Millikan didn’t have in the game. The officials later clarified which player was called for the foul on the play, but the moment certainly acted as a momentum shifter in the final minutes of regulation.
“I don’t know, it just sucks because it’s in a moment where you have momentum and you’re creating shots,” Nunez said. “Then you get on this high where all of a sudden you have to come down and play again. You saw a scary moment right after that where we were trying to get off of that high, but we just had to bring ourselves back to an even keel.”
One of those scary moments came just minutes later in the 77th minute, when Ayala’s Benavidez put a shot on goal on a set piece from 30 yards out at midfield. The Bulldogs then put the only shot on frame in overtime, as Amaryn Silva came up short of the game-winning goal.
Ayala was the more physical team in the second half and overtime, committing 12 fouls to Millikan’s five and setting up a handful of set piece opportunities that the Rams were unable to capitalize on. Each team’s bench was also handed a yellow card as the game’s intensity grew, along with a yellow shown to Ayala’s Benavidez.
The win for Millikan is its 13th straight victory with as many consecutive clean sheets, including their 1-0 win over Ayala last Saturday in the CIF-SS Division 2 championship. The two-seeded Rams will now host four-seed Quartz Hill in the regional final on Saturday with a chance to punch their ticket to the CIF State championship. The title game will be at Natomas High School in Sacramento on March 14.
