Granada Hills Charter has turned a corner when it comes to girls soccer.
The Highlanders, who have been competitive for several seasons, beat Apple Valley on March 2 for the CIF SoCal Regional Division III crown. It’s the first time a boys or girls team has won a regional championship at Granada Hills.
“It raises the expectations a little higher for the next few years, but that comes with the territory,” head coach Guilherme Mitrovitch said. “It’s very very exciting. The school was pretty stoked about the win and they’re still celebrating.”
Mitrovitch is in his first season as head coach at Granada Hills, but has previously experienced success while coaching Hart’s girls soccer team.
Coincidentally, the Highlanders’ girls basketball team also won a CIF regional championship this season under a first-year head coach in Rai Colston.
Mitrovitch credits previous coach David Huish for building up the girls soccer program and setting up the team for success this season. The coach said he only had to make a few slight changes to the style of play this season to get them on track for a regional title. The players’ response was a factor in the success, as well.
“This group, I could tell that from the beginning they were hungry, they wanted to get better, they wanted to do better than the last two years,” Mitrovitch said. “They all bought in right away and we had a good cohesion in our group and good leadership, too.”
The Highlanders went 7-0-3 in West Valley League play to win the program’s first league championship since 2020 and had 10 players named to a West Valley All-League team.
Juniors Ana De Los Santos, Haley Mallas and Sophia Hartunian, sophomore Genesis Sanchez and freshman Iliana Velazco were each named first-team players. Seniors Hazel Caro and Isabella Cubias, junior Samantha Chon, sophomore Yasmine Guemmat and freshman Natalie Pimentel were each recognized on the second team.
A challenging nonleague schedule that included games against the CIF Southern Section’s Hart, Notre Dame and Marymount had prepared Granada Hills for the road to come.
Granada Hills fought to a draw with Cleveland on two different occasions and with El Camino Real. The Highlanders had a rematch with the Royals in the CIF Los Angeles City Section Division I semifinals, but lost 2-0.
“I feel like we maybe got a little too comfortable,” Mitrovitch said. “El Camino capitalized on it and that was definitely a warning moment for us. And then we responded very well.”
A defensive style of play led Granada Hills to nine shutouts throughout the season and helped the team get past Granite Hills and Bonita Vista in the first two rounds of the state regional playoffs.
Apple Valley scored on a free kick in the first half of the championship game, but Ana De Los Santos evened the score when she converted on a penalty kick. The game went to overtime and eventually to penalty kicks, something that Apple Valley had experience in.
The Sun Devils had beaten Oak Park in CIF-SS Division 3 championship game on a corner kick and also won its regional semifinal game — which was also against Oak Park — in penalty kicks.
“I couldn’t help but to think, oh, those girls are ready for PKs,” Mitrovitch said. “But I do feel like we are ready, we were prepared. We trained a lot and the girls were able to excuse perfectly.”
Five Granada Hills players made their shots to secure the championship and also add another layer of success for the Highlanders to build off of. Two starters will be graduating, leaving an experienced group to return next season.
“That kind of experience, it’s priceless,” Mitrovitch said. “There’s been tough games, situations and they know what they’ve been through, what they had to endure, when they had to push to get that regional title. It’s huge.”