Led by sophomores Colby Barnett and Tabi LaParl, the No. 2 seed Los Alamitos High Girls Soccer team defeated Hart of Santa Clarita 6-0 in a convincing second round CIF playoff win Friday evening at Los Alamitos High.
Barnett, a non-stop midfielder, scored three goals and LaParl, the county’s leading scorer, added a pair as the Griffins’ improved their record to 23-0-5 and advanced to Tuesday’s Division I quarterfinals. The Griffins will meet long-time Sunset League rival Newport Harbor. The Sailors, who won the rebranded Sunset Conference’s Wave League in this year’s new format, have defeated Mission Viejo and Santa Margarita by 1-0 scores in the first two rounds. They bring an 18-2-6 record into the match.
Hart, the Foothill Conference champs, brought a 20-1-1 match into their game yesterday and played the Griffins aggressively from the top with special attention being focused on LaParl. But this also meant more opportunities for her teammates and Barnett made the most of it, scoring three goals and collecting two assists on the night. She almost had a fourth when a one-on-one shot from the left side in the 12th minute beat the keeper but was too high.
In the 18th minute, Barnett again had the ball on the left side, tried to find LaParl in the middle but her pass was deflected. Freshman defender Teryn Newkirk beat everyone to the ball near the top of the
Five minutes later the Griffins caught the Indian defense too forward after a free kick, and LaParl sent the ball forward to a streaking Barnett who put it
In the 33rd minute, Barnett returned the favor to LaParl on a classic give and go. Barnett’s one-touch a pass found LaParl splitting the defenders and sending a hard shot which Priske got a hand on, but not enough to stop it from reaching the nets. The Griffins took the 3-0 lead into halftime.
Hart came out aggressive in the second and the ball spent a lot of time on the Griffins half of the field. Los Al again played some uncharacteristic long ball, but the defense, which posted its 21st shutout on the year, never allowed a shot which seriously challenged goalkeeper Reezyn Turk.
With fifteen minutes remaining Barnett applied the dagger on a brilliant run from midfield, weaving between defenders and then firing a shot from the corner of the
A few minutes later LaParl scored again to make it
Barnett finished off the scoring in the final minute. Teryn Newkirk made a midfield run then slipped a through pass to Barnett who beat everyone to the ball and
In other
In the upper half of the bracket, JSerra plays San Juan Hills and No. 4 seed Villa Park travels to Trabuco Hills. The winners play in the semi-finals next Saturday.
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