H.-W. GIRLS LOSE TO BISHOP MONTGOMERY IN 4 OTS : BISHOP MONT. 0, HARVARD-WEST. 0.

Byline: Heather Gripp Daily News Staff Writer

The upper-right corner of the net. That's where Bishop Montgomery found a way to end the Harvard-Westlake girls' soccer team's season.

After Sara Deckers and the Wolverines defense shut down the Knights through regulation and four overtime periods in Tuesday's Division IV semifinal, Bishop Montgomery ended the 0-0 deadlock by drilling its first three penalty kicks into the upper-right corner.

The host Knights clinched the victory when the top-seeded Wolverines missed their first three shots in the best-of-five shootout. Fourth-seeded Bishop Montgomery (24-2) plays Chaminade in Saturday's final.

Deckers guessed the right direction of the shots, but the junior couldn't get a hand on any of them.

``It didn't even matter,'' said an upbeat Deckers, who was one of the few Wolverines left with a smile. ``When it comes down to penalty kicks, it's anybody's game.

``We played our hearts out, out there. It was a really intense game.''

Imani Dorsey took Harvard-Westlake's first penalty shot and missed wide to the left. Kim LaVere's shot was stopped by Knights goalie Adrian Conde. The Wolverines' hopes of winning their first division title ended when Lauren Jordan's shot went wide right.

Shooting didn't come easy for Harvard-Westlake (19-5-1) during the game either.

``Our problem today was what it's been all season,'' Harvard-Westlake coach Ned Smith said. ``We didn't have any offense. We had a couple of set pieces, but we couldn't execute.''

The Wolverines scored a combined four goals in their four playoff games. Defense is what carried Harvard-Westlake as far as it got and was significant in prolonging the semifinal.

Deckers and Dorsey, a junior sweeper, were effective in the defensive showdown. Deckers dived, slid and jumped to grab corner kicks and other balls headed her way. One of her biggest saves was a diving play at the post in the 70th minute. Bishop Montgomery got past Dorsey and crossed the ball for what appeared to be a sure goal. Then Deckers dived to her right, stretching as far as she could, to stop the ball just before it crossed the goal line. When Deckers came out of the net, her teammates took over in turning away the Knights.