Torrid Tartars Seek 2nd Girls’ Soccer Title

With the boys soccer resurgence--they’re ranked in the CIF Top 10 for the first time in memory--a girls volleyball league title and the football team’s first league championship in two decades, Torrance High is having a pretty good year.

But by the time the core of the girls soccer team graduates, they may have marked the 1980s as Torrance’s decade.

The Torrance girls won the CIF 4-A title last year and appear intent on repeating, carrying an 18-0 mark into the week and a 35-0-1 streak over the last two years.

Through this season’s first 18 games Torrance had allowed only eight goals while scoring 87. The team hasn’t been shut out since 1982. Only once this year have the girls had to come from behind, in a 3-1 victory over Bishop Montgomery. They play at Bishop at 2:30 Friday afternoon in what may be their last tough Ocean League game before the playoffs.

Future Bright

Even more remarkable, Torrance loses only four key seniors this year, is led by a sophomore and has a group of underclassmen who will make the Tartars title contenders for at least the next two years. By then there may be another fine crop on the horizon.

Of course, it’s not just any sophomore who leads the Tartars. Shannon Maddock led the CIF in scoring as a freshman with 46 goals and 21 assists and entered the week with 41 goals and 19 assists this year. With at least nine games left, Maddock could threaten the CIF season record of 62 goals set by Carin Jennings of Palos Verdes two years ago. If healthy, she should also bear down on Jennings’ career record of 220.

(Jennings’ season and career scoring records are unofficial but will probably be accepted by the CIF when it completes a record file for girls soccer.)

Torrance Coach Dale Walker compares Maddock to Mater Dei basketball star Tom Lewis in their ability to affect the outcome of games. “They’re probably the most dominant athletes in Southern California,� he said.

Unlike Jennings, who was an overpowering player, Maddock is a wispy forward who relies on quickness and superb offensive skills. She was uncharacteristically involved in a fight with the North Torrance goalie last week but, at about 5-2 and probably less than 100 pounds, generally is not seen as a physical player.

And she is not a one-girl team. Sophomores Julie Jamile, the sweeper on defense, goalie Julie Claxton, Kelly Stevenson and Holly Johansen start and play key roles on defense. Sophomore Kim Kirkwood also plays. Senior Julie Claxton is a top goal keeper.

Forward Nanci Smith, who was moved from midfield, has scored 24 goals and benefits from the defensive attention paid to Maddock. Smith and fellow seniors Debbie Rutherford, Nina Marcoux and Jayme Lorentz will probably receive college scholarships.

Denise Henderson and Laura Moses are the juniors, and Michelle Gregory is playing as a freshman. “Most people who haven’t seen us play think it’s a one-girl show. Really, it’s not,� Walker said.

Walker, who is assisted by former Torrance star Bobby Contreras, said the team is so talented that his real job is to put the players at the right spots and try to keep everybody happy.

“It’s really a management thing more than a coaching thing,� Walker said, “keeping them happy, giving them good workouts. Sometimes they have tougher competition scrimmaging each other than they do in real games. You don’t teach the skill level they’re at in two years in high school. These girls have played together since they were 6 or 7.�

Walker, who coached the boys team six years ago, was asked to take over the girls before last season. At tryouts, three freshmen--including Maddock--showed up and a potential dynasty was set in motion.

“These little freshmen really stood out. They were equal to or over and above the returning lettermen,� Walker recalled. “You could see right away. Then in the first game we went up to Simi Valley and won, 4-0, and Shannon scored all four. Then I knew we had something.�

Walker believes a mini-dynasty is a possibility and said he enjoys coaching the girls more than the boys. They present some problems and sensitivities not encountered with the boys but, Walker said, also take to coaching faster and are more receptive to guidance.

He said dedication is the watchword of the team, and of his star: “Shannon works at her soccer skills all her free time. It comes ahead of food, boys, everything at this time. She loves the game.�

Is this an incipient dynasty? “We hope so,� Walker said. “This is one of those situations where everything has come together. All the girls live in the same neighborhood and have grown up playing together. There’s no telling how far our unbeaten streak could go. It could end Friday or it could go for quite a while. . . . These girls like to win.�

And on the horizon? “Shannon has twin sisters in seventh grade and they’re pretty good little players,� Walker said. “When she’s a senior there’s a possibility of having three Maddocks on the team.�

Which means Torrance might even be the team of the ‘90s.