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Girls’ 5-6 Silver: Lincoln breaks through

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These days, Rodney Sheppard, a founding member of the rock band Sugar Ray, makes more noise cheering on his 12-year-old daughter in a soccer match than with his guitar.

“It makes her mother and I so proud that we get extremely loud on the [sideline],” Sheppard said of watching Charlotte play with her Lincoln Elementary girls’ team. “We feel more tired than the kids at the end of the game.”

Charlotte was full of energy after the goalkeeper helped Lincoln win the Daily Pilot Cup fifth- and sixth-grade Silver Division title on Sunday. After Lincoln edged Mariners Christian School, 2-1, at Jack Hammett Sports Complex, Charlotte brought out one of the team’s mascots.

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“This is George,” Charlotte said of the inflatable deer she held, before introducing a second mascot, a wrestler the team called “Macho Man.”

Some of Charlotte’s teammates broke out singing, “I want to be a Macho Man!” They really wanted to be champions at the Pilot Cup. They can now say they are.

“We just [made] history because no Lincoln team for girls [had] won [before],” Charlotte said. “Good job, girls!”

Lincoln pulled it off by coming back from an early deficit. Kiley Gugasian tied it up in the 12th minute, and Reece Kenerson recorded the eventual game-winning goal in the 38th minute.

“That was probably the play of the tournament,” Lincoln Coach Tom Neiger said of Kenerson’s goal, coming deep inside the goal box after she dribbled past defenders in traffic.

Neiger and Ray Parsi, Lincoln’s other coach, kept telling Kenerson to shoot with her right foot. She almost scored in the 29th minute, but keeper Chloe Zollman made the late save to ensure it stayed 1-1 in the first half.

With 30 minutes left, Mariners Christian Coach Jeff Creamer had the team that had been on this stage before, having won the third- and fourth-grade Gold Division championship the previous year.

Mariners Christian needed another good start, the kind Annie Buda gave the team three minutes into the final. She recorded her third goal on the day. The other two came earlier in a 3-1 win against St. Joachim in the semifinals.

Creamer’s daughter, Gabriella, assisted on Buda’s most recent goal, the only one that Charlotte Sheppard allowed. Sheppard came up with a couple of key saves in the second half, allowing Lincoln to win all five of its matches in the tournament.

Mariners Christian, playing with all fifth-graders, began playing on its heels when Gugasian began to make runs again. Although the striker was unable to finish in the second half, chasing around Gugasian wore down Mariners Christian.

The best chance for Mariners Christian to even things up came on free kicks in the 39th and 52nd minutes, but the shots by Logan Bray and Buda either were stopped or sailed high.

Scoring wasn’t much of an issue for Lincoln on Sunday. Lincoln saw Gugasian, Liv Franczyk, Anna Neiger, Mattie Picou and Emma Guerena produce a goal in a 5-0 win against St. John the Baptist in the semifinals. The shutout marked the second for Lincoln, and Sheppard had a lot to do with the success.

“The winning was not the coolest part,” said Rodney Sheppard, who graduated from Corona del Mar High in 1984. “The coolest part was watching the team become super, super close. All the parents are like, ‘Boy, they’re all getting along. This is the greatest part ever. They’re so excited. They do the cheers before and they do the cheers at halftime.’”

Afterward, Sheppard couldn’t help but rock out with the Lincoln girls.

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