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San Clemente senior Maddie Finnerty plays soccer with a noticeable burst, from dribbling on the counterattack to running off the field during a substitution.

The midfielder’s hustle, seemingly from one penalty box to the another, is purposeful. She is motivated by two years of knee injuries that delayed her high school debut until this season.

“It’s so good to just run around and be with the team,” Finnerty said after the Tritons’ 1-0 victory against San Juan Hills on Tuesday. “I missed playing so much. That’s why I run around so hard out here. I love it and it’s fun.”

Finnerty, the daughter of San Clemente coach Stacey Finnerty, missed her sophomore and junior seasons with torn ACLs — first her right and then her left.

She suffered both knee injuries just prior to her sophomore and junior seasons, which would have been her first for San Clemente. She didn’t play high school soccer as a freshman, opting instead for the U.S. Developmental Academy that she joined as a seventh grader.

Finnerty said the road recovery after her first knee injury was so challenging that she had some doubts whether she could do it a second time. But her love of the game and the support of her teammates and mother pushed her to complete two, 10-month recoveries.

“It definitely was hard,” said Finnerty, a member of the SoCal Blues club who aspires to play in college. “But the girls (on the San Clemente team) are amazing. We have a really big senior class this year. They’ve been supporting me through the whole process.

“To come back and play with them is amazing.”

Finnerty said several of her teammates also have come back from knee injuries, including senior forward Makenzie Gutowski. “She really helped me through my recovery,” Finnerty said.

Finnerty also credits her mother, who returned to the Tritons last season after a storied first coaching tenure ended in 2016. San Clemente won five CIF-SS championships, a CIF State regional crown and nine league titles under Stacey Finnerty over a 16-year run.

Finnerty not only is playing this season for her mother for the first time, she is a student in her biology class at San Clemente.

“I respect her a lot,” Finnerty said of her mother. “She’s the best.”

Mom is pretty proud of her, too. She said last winter that coaching her daughter would a “dream come true.”

The mother-daughter duo is now united with their former AYSO teammates chasing another CIF title. “I just want to go all the way,” Maddie Finnerty said. “I think we can do it.”

NOTES

Pacifica defeated Valencia 6-2 on Tuesday to finish the first half of the Empire League with a 5-0 record. Abbe Campos scored netted a hat-trick and Ashley Smith added two goals and two assists for the Mariners (10-4-2 overall).

Campos has 10 goals while junior Natalie Oca has nine goals and 10 assists. …

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