By Greg Hancock

photos by Joe Hu/Town Crier St. Francis High’s Katie Mitchell, right, battles a Westmont player for the ball in last week’s CCS playoff game.

Entering its Central Coast Section opener versus Westmont, the St. Francis High girls soccer team knew a good start would be essential to fulfilling its dream of winning the Division II title.

Idle for a week, the host Lancers wanted to shake off the rust and get into a groove early. They did both in beating the Warriors 3-0 Feb. 15 to advance to last Saturday’s quarterfinals.

St. Francis coach Dawn Hill came into the opening-round game concerned about her team’s ability to finish scoring chances, which has led to more close matches than she would have liked.

“The hard part for us this year has been putting the ball in the back of the net,” Hill said. “If we can finish a couple early, we’ll be in good shape.”

The eighth-seeded Lancers (18-4-3) did exactly that against No. 9 Westmont (12-5-3).

St. Francis dominated play from the opening moments. The Lancers used precision passing and ball control to dominate possession throughout the match. Firing from almost every angle, St. Francis took 25 shots on goal and limited the Warriors to four.

The Lancers’ first goal came in the 11th minute, as Danielle Drago drilled an unassisted shot past Westmont goalkeeper Jessica Rozhin.

“We knew that if we got on the board early, we’d play hard in this game and would have a good shot at winning,” Drago said. “We play a lot better when we are in the lead.”

Moments later, Erin Fleischli booted a loose ball past Rozhin after a corner kick to push the lead to 2-0.

Just before the half, Erin Lemmon added to the advantage with a firm follow-up of a shot that rebounded off Rozhin. The 3-0 lead provided more than enough cushion for St. Francis.

It turns out the layoff wasn’t a problem for the Lancers. Hill actually thought it might have benefited her team, giving wounded players a chance to heal and allowing everyone a mental break.

“We had a week off to get some rest and get healthy,” she said. “It’s definitely nice to be at home for the first round.”

St. Francis, regular-season champion of the West Catholic Athletic League, won’t play at home again this season. They were scheduled to face top seed Pioneer (13-5-2) Saturday in a quarterfinal match played at a neutral site after the Town Crier went to press.

“Tonight, we played very well,” said Drago, a junior. ” It’s going to give us a nice boost going into Saturday. They (Pioneer) are No. 1 in CCS, and we know that. We’re going to come in hard and prepare for the game in the next two days.”

Added Hill: “Right now we are refocusing on the playoffs, knowing that every game is do or die.”