Griffin Sports: Girls soccer earns rematch with JSerra; Softball in first loss

The Los Alamitos Girls Soccer team scored early against Harvard-Westlake, then had to make that one goal stand the rest of the way — but they did and their 1-0 win earned them a rematch with JSerra this Saturday for the State CIF SoCal Regional Championship.

The rematch will take place tomorrow (Saturday) at No. 1 seed JSerra’s home field at 26351 Junipero Serra Road in San Juan Capistrano. (It’s right off the 5 Freeway.) Here are the Google Directions.

Senior Analisa Gjonovich scored the only goal against Harvard-Westlake, one touching a pass from Maddie Reid into the nets in the 18th minute.

The Griffins, who improved their season mark to 27-1-5, had many other chances throughout the match and eventually outshot the Wolverines 19-6, with 13 of those on frame. But a strong performance by H-W goalie Devon Carmel kept the visitors in the game until the end.

The Griffin defense wasn’t at the top of its game, allowing more pressure than usual on sophomore keeper Reezyn Turk, but they still managed to record their 25th shutout on the season.

A more detailed story on the game is available at the OC Register.

SOFTBALL: Griffins defeat Mater Dei, then fall to Santiago.

The Los Alamitos Griffins softball team, ranked No. 2 in Orange County, split a pair of games this week, their final tune-ups before heading to Nevada.

The Griffins downed Mater Dei 6-1 on Tuesday with seven players each getting a hit, the biggest being a home run by sophomore catcher Sophia Nugent. But the Los Al squad was done in by a two-run Santiago rally in the 6th inning in their road match at the Corona school on Thursday. Griffin pitcher Tyler Denhart got the win on Tuesday and pitched a four hitter against santiago, but most were in that two-run sixth.

The Griffin bats were held in check by Santiago with Erin Mendoza and Emma Sellers collecting the team’s only hits, both of them doubles.

Santiago was not on the Division I pre-season watch list but has turned in some impressive performances this season en route to compiling a 5-1-1 record. The record includes a tie with No 1. seed Orange Lutheran and a 7-1 win over Mater Dei.

The Griffins’ schedule is now empty for a week, But next week the team travels to Bullhead City, Arizona for the annual Dave Kops Tournament of Champions from March 7-9. The tournament is arguably the most competitive high school tournament in the nation.