A historic shootout: Gregori beats Davis in penalties for first SJS championship
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Gregori wins first SJS title after 0-0, 6-5 penalty shootout.
- Jocelyn Malagon saved three PKs and stopped the final kick with her foot.
- Undefeated record 23-0-1 (19 straight); advances to NorCal regionals.
The Gregori girls soccer team have inched closer to the Sac-Joaquin Section’s ultimate prize for three seasons.
In 2024, they survived a triple overtime first round match but lost in the second round. In 2025, they won their first two playoff games but fell in a dramatic semifinal home match to Folsom.
There was hope, though. Every time they won a playoff game, they made school history. Last season’s semifinals trip was farther than any Jaguar girls soccer team had gone.
“Me and Ky (Kylie Farmer) talked about it all the time how every year we got closer and closer,” said senior and the team’s leading goals scorer Grace Rodriguez. “In our senior year, we wanted to get it done.”
They started this season hot, reaching a top-five ranking in the nation and the top spot in California. This whole season, they were the top-ranked team in the Sac-Joaquin Section. And they never wavered. They allowed just one goal in the regular season and went undefeated. They won a Central California Athletic League title and when the playoffs started, they were the No. 1 seed in Division I.
They won all three of their postseason matches and found themselves where no Jaguars girls soccer team had been before: a Sac-Joaquin Section championship match.
They were determined to not let the moment slip away.
“These kids have so much intrinsic motivation, it’s not hard to motivate them,” head coach Tracy Moore said. “They want to win, and it makes my job a lot easier.”
The Jaguars played a tough, skilled 10-seed Davis Senior High Saturday night and were tested. After 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods of scoreless soccer, the teams lined up for penalty kicks.
Each Jaguar delivered when her name was called, as the team drilled six of their seven attempts. But no one came up bigger than senior goalkeeper Jocelyn Malagon, who forced a high attempt and blocked the final kick to send the Gregori team and fans into a frenzy and secure the 0-0 (6-5) PK win.
The Jaguars secured the first section championship in school history and advance to 23-0-1 with 19 straight wins. They have scored 93 goals on the season and have given up just four.
They were two even teams
Gregori was the No. 1 seed in the Division and played like it the entire postseason. They erupted for three second-half goals in a 4-1 first-round win, they won 2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinals and scored a second half goal in the semifinals to pull out a 1-0 win.
Davis was no ordinary No. 10 seed. The Blue Devils finished third in the Sierra Foothill League and upset their way to the section title match. The two sides played an even game.
Both spent time trying to figure each other out, but Gregori answered each Davis attack with an offensive burst of its own.
Gregori’s best attempt came near the end of regulation when Rodriguez controlled the ball just feet from the left post, but Aubrey McLin saved multiple Jaguars attempts.
“We knew they were going to come out fired up and ready to go and we had to come with the same intensity from the start,” Moore said. “I felt like my girls did that from kickoff to the end of the game. There was no let up.”
Gregori wins the shootout
Penalty kicks are equal parts mental and physical.
Physically, after exerting themselves for 100 minutes, players taking the kicks on both sides have to be more accurate than ever. They have one shot to help win their team a title.
Mentally, it can be easy to overthink the shot, how hard the ball is kicked and placement of the shot can flood a player’s mind in the seconds they have between walking to the spot from midfield and striking the ball.
“That walk from the halfway line to the goal is a big walk,” Farmer said.
The goalkeeper is reacting strictly off instincts, using reflexes and reading the offensive player’s body positioning to try to guess which way she will kick the ball.
Malagon guessed right three times during the championship-deciding shootout. Once, she went low but the Blue Devils’ striker went high for a goal. Another time she got her fingers on the ball that snuck by for another goal.
“The first one I guessed right and the second one threw me off, but that third one I got a fingertip save, so I knew the next one, it was mine,” she said.
With the shootout tied at 4-4, a Davis shot hit the top crossbar, giving the Jaguars life. The next three strikers all converted, two for Gregori and one for Davis Senior, giving Gregori a 6-5 lead with the next Davis kicker prepping for her shot.
“I’m always super nervous,” Malagon admitted, “but having my teammates around me, motivating me, telling me I’ve got it really uplifts my mood. I get into the mindset that this is just another PK shootout, I’m able to do it.”
The Davis striker kicked left, Malagon jumped right, but kicked the ball with her foot, sealing the Jaguars’ championship.
Their reaction was delayed, but when they realized the title was theirs, the excitement flowed.
“At first, I didn’t realize it was the end and we won,” Malegaon said. “But then I saw my teammates running towards me and that feeling is honestly the best.”
Malagon and the Jaguars’ defense did not allow a goal during the regular season and most times in the postseason when she was tested, she came up big. In the semifinals, she had a key save to keep West Park off the board.
“We know what we have in Jocelyn,” Moore said. “Somebody out there, whoever’s listening and hears this and needs a goalkeeper at the next level, she’s fantastic.”
Continuing to make history
For the rest of the season, each step in the Jaguars’ journey is, once again, historic.
After winning their first girls soccer blue banner, Gregori advances to the CIF Northern California regional playoffs where they hope to extend that into a state championship run.
This is the last time Malagon, Rodriguez, Farmer and the other seniors on Gregori’s roster will play high school soccer.
Moore says the team will take a couple of days off to rest before jumping back into practice. They do not know who they will face in the regional playoffs yet, brackets will be released in early March, but they want to keep the ride going for as long as possible.
“We’re making it as far as we can so we can play as long as we can,” Rodriguez said.
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 9:31 AM.
