GIRLS SOCCER: Barnett, LaParl lead Griffins into CIF quarter-finals

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GIRLS SOCCER: Barnett, LaParl lead Griffins into CIF quarter-finals

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.

GSoc LAHS Hart report 2019020908

Uploaded by Our Los Al TV on 2019-02-09.

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 box, and fired a hard shot which slightly grazed a defender and changed the direction of the shjot away from the diving Hart keeper, making it 1-0 Los Al.

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 away for a 2-0 lead..

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 18 yard box over the keepers head and into the far net.

A few minutes later LaParl scored again to make it 5-0, but giving the Griffin fans a scare as she stayed kneeling in pain. The Hart defender hit her just as she was planting for the shot, tweaking her hip muscles slightly.

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 poked it past the goalie for her hat trick. She now has 14 goals on the year and 17 assists.

LaParl’s goals were her 27th and 28th, breaking her own single season school record, and giving her a career total of 51 in just two season at Los Al. The last goal moved her even with Sophia (Bo) Medina (LAHS ’06) at second place on the Griffins’ all-time career scoring list. She is now only a single goal behind Liz Willemse’s all-time career mark of 52. Willemese (now Liz Yoast) played at Los Al from 1987-88 through 1990-91, then played four years at UCLA. After twenty years in Northern California, she has just moved back to Orange County and saw Los Al defeat Wilson on Wednesday, and rooted LaParl on.

In other Division I playoff action, No. 1 seed JSerra defeated Long Beach Millikan with a golden goal in the second overtime, and Cypress (15-4-8) upset No. 3 seed Upland 2-1. Cypress now travels to play Mission league champ Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday.

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.

Link to updated brackets

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