After a series of upset victories propelled it to the finals of last weekend’s AYSO Area 10E soccer tournament in Moorpark, Malibu’s U-10 girls team, known as Red Phoenix, rose to a second place finish in the competition and will continue their season in February at the State Section Tournament in Bakersfield.
In the final, the unseeded Malibu team lost the area championship to the top-rated Mighty Macaws of Agoura by a score of 3-2, succumbing on the 18th kick of a tie-breaking sudden-death shootout. But the disappointing outcome notwithstanding, the second-place finish of the previously unheralded girls team from Malibu was the talk of the tournament.
The Red Phoenix began the AYSO season in September as one of the lower-ranked U-10 teams in the Malibu league. After losing its first few games, the team began to work together, and by the local playoffs in November the Phoenix were playing well enough to qualify for the area tournament. For the first two periods of their first game of the tournament, a strong team from Thousand Oaks jumped to a 2-0 lead over the Phoenix. But with a combination of grit and talent, the Malibu girls fought back to a 2-2 tie, and after that there was no stopping them. They won their next four games, against the Tigers of Simi Valley, the Lightning Bolts of Newbury Park, the top-seeded Electric Shock of Newbury Park and the Tidal Waves of Malibu, earning the right to face the Mighty Macaws in the finals.
As a result of their impressive performance, the Phoenix will represent Malibu in the State Section Tournament in Bakersfield the weekend of Feb. 23-24.