By John M. Sherrard
Kayla De Herrera led the Mounties with two goals in the game. The freshman finished with 66 goals on the season, good for 20th in the state.
As a team this season, the Mounties finished 14th in the state in scoring with 262 goals.
"We always strive to be in the So Cal's and we're young this year and will try to set ourselves up better next year so we're not playing the number-one team," Mt. SAC coach Chris Jackson said.
"To be playing on Friday and being in the top eight is no small feat," Jackson added.
The Mounties graduate only two sophomores this season.
"There was a lot of pressure on both of those sophomores (Beth Keane and Hannah Krolik) to lead a young, young team," Jackson said.
The Mounties, seeded ninth in the So Cal's, trailed, 5-0, in the first period before getting on the scoreboard after a goal from De Herrera with 2:15 left in the period.
SBCC scored three more goals in the second to take an insurmountable, 8-1, lead at halftime.
Mountie freshman Clare Rowland opened the third period with a goal, to trail, 8-2, but again the Vaqueros reeled off three straight goals for the, 11-2 lead heading into the final period.
Keane scored just 21 seconds into the fourth period, followed by two more Mountie goals, the only scores in the period.
"We had some highlight games this year and wow, the Citrus game (Thursday) was definitely about heart," Keane said. "That game was monumental. We were glad to get here and definitely had our hopes up about beating Santa Barbara."
Keane was second on the team with 41 goals this season.
De Herrera scored at the 3:43 mark to trail, 11-4, and freshman Alexis Aguirre closed out the game with a goal at 1:43.
"To get into the playoffs and battle it out (Thursday's triple-overtime win) and get to play (Friday in the quarterfinals) is huge," Jackson said of the post-season appearance.
"We were able to avenge a couple of losses this year. The Cerritos and the Citrus loss."
The Mounties lost a close, 5-3, conference game to Cerritos and a 6-4 setback to the Owls in the Long Beach tournament at the end of the regular season.