Patti McGarvey/Special to the Sun

The Lady Broncs traveled to Bishop on Feb.2 to face off with the Lady Broncos and try to keep alive their hopes for a High Desert League Championship.

One play would give Bishop the win and put Kern Valley’s league title hopes on life support. In a tough battle in the midfield the Lady Broncs forced the Bishop Keeper to touch the ball 22 times and make seven saves with one block in the field. This was exactly matched by the Bishop team as they forced the Lady Broncs Keeper, Lisa Wallace to touch the ball 22 times make eight saves and one block from the field.

Head coach Tom Cormack said, “The entire match came down to one play in the Lady Broncs Penalty Box.”

As Bishop drove hard for the goal in the box, passing and dribbling across the face of the goal and the Kern Valley defenders pursued and pressed to clear the ball, the Bishop striker was knocked to the ground and was awarded a penalty kick which she scored to leave the final score 1-0 and take a league championship out of Kern Valley's hands.

While still possible Kern Valley can only catch Frazier Mountain or Bishop if they get some help with teams they have previously beaten by large margins.

Still, Kern Valley has earned their best ever league finish with a solid third place in league and a secure berth in the CIF play off tournament.

For clears, the top three Lady Broncs were Abbey Stanton 11, Kassie Solis 4 and Carla Morrison 2.

“The Lady Broncs played really well against Bishop. We fought till the end, but Bishop scored one point on us and that is when the game came to an end,” said Patty Ruiz.

Just a few days prior it was an exciting game for the Lady Broncs when they beat Cal City 3-0.

The Lady Broncs controlled the ball well forcing the Cal City Goal Keeper into 33 touches, and 14 saves and Wallace the keeper for Kern Valley had to touch the ball only three times during the whole game and didn't have to make any saves.

A scoring opportunity came when Cal City handled the ball in their penalty box to set up a penalty kick. Jordyn Acosta's shot went just a bit too high and the score stayed 0-0 which is what it remained until halftime.

Kern Valley continued to pound the Cal City defense in the second half. One minute into the second half Ruiz started the action by intercepting a long kick from and passing it to Hogue on the wing, she crossed the ball to Acosta at the far post. Acosta touched the ball past the goal keeper then pressed past the goalie to finish the shot for the first goal of the game.

Six minutes later Hailee Adams intercepted the ball and passed it to Hogue for a shot that the goal keeper parried back into the field for Stephanie Lopez to finish to make 2-0.

Ruiz finished the scoring with five minutes left in the game as she stole the ball and unleashed a power shot on the goal which Cal City’s Keeper got a hand on but couldn't handle as it slipped through her fingers into the goal leaving the final score 3-0 and a guaranteed trip to the CIF post season tournament.