Los Alamitos girls’ soccer tops Newport Harbor for Sunset League title
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LOS ALAMITOS — Los Alamitos High girls’ soccer senior Vivi Zacarias showed her soccer IQ twice in a crucial moment of Wednesday night’s inaugural Sunset League tournament championship match.
Zacarias stole the pass back to Newport Harbor goalkeeper Cooper Dick in the right side of the box. Then, rather than rushing things, she waited for a second wave of players to arrive, passing the ball to junior teammate Baylee Fernley up top.
“She rolled the dice,” Sailors coach Justin Schroeder said of the theft in the 17th minute. “It was a really smart play.”
Dick got back in goal in time to deflect the shot, but Fernley still scored it into the left corner. Zacarias added a header goal off a free kick in the second half, as the Griffins earned a 2-0 win at their home field to clinch their eighth straight league title.
Los Alamitos (13-5-4) finished as both the dual match champion and tournament champion in the league. Newport Harbor (15-4-3) would have won the league title by a single point, based on combined points, if it had earned the win Wednesday.
Instead, the Sailors had their second 2-0 loss to Los Alamitos in a week in the battle of two teams ranked in the top five in Orange County. And the Griffins’ league dominance continues, winning every Sunset or Surf League crown since Edison finished on top in 2016-17.
“Every year keeps getting harder and harder,” said Zacarias, bound for the University of Colorado. “Congrats and kudos to Newport and every other team in this league, because they make it so challenging. They make us have to work every single day for this. It’s not easy. Anyone can really win, but thankfully, we just put the work in at practice, film sessions and we got the league title.”
Zacarias, who scored both goals in the teams’ meeting last week, flicked a header on target in the 31st minute off a free kick from Camryn Flores to account for the second score.
The Sailors worked valiantly early in the second half to cut their deficit in half, with senior Lily Achak booming in some dangerous crosses from the left and senior Abbi Clapp doing the same from the right.
Every time, Los Alamitos junior goalkeeper Avarie Gonzalez was there. Schroeder called Gonzalez, a University of Miami commit, the MVP of the teams’ two meetings.
“Avarie, you’re on fire, keep it up,” a fan in the stands yelled in the closing minutes after Gonzalez challenged the Sailors’ Natalie McCarty to deflect the ball past the end line, then subsequently grabbed a well-placed corner kick.
Schroeder shouted out his back line of Audrey Herron, Caroline Harner and Leah Showalter, which played well against the Griffins’ speed and constant pressure despite the loss.
“I thought our back line was tremendous today, truthfully,” he said. “I don’t think any of the goals that they got were anything that our back line couldn’t handle. They were just goals, goals that we can maybe look back on and figure out what we did wrong.”
Both teams now prepare for the CIF Southern Section playoffs; brackets will be released Saturday at 10 a.m.
Los Alamitos expects to make the Open Division, while Schroeder said the Sailors would likely either also make the Open Division or be one of the top seeds in Division 1.
If the teams meet for a third time in the playoffs, he knows what needs to change for his side.
“Los Al is clearly a team you can’t go down against, right?” he said. “Definitely not down two goals. For us, if we see them again in the playoffs, the goal is either to score first or it needs to be 0-0 at halftime. Once they’re feeling good, things are happening for them and they’re buzzing around, they’re hard to stop and they don’t concede.”
Edison 1, Huntington Beach 0: Freshman Jaylen Maroney’s 28th-minute free kick held up as the game’s only goal in the third-place match of the Sunset League tournament Tuesday night at Huntington Beach High.
Both Edison (12-7-3) and Huntington Beach (13-5-4) are headed to the CIF playoffs beginning next week.
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