MISSION VIEJO — Viviana Zacarias of Los Alamitos scored the game’s only goal on a penalty kick early in the second half to give the Griffins a 1-0 victory over Capistrano Valley in a CIF SS Open Division second-round match Saturday at Capistrano Valley High School.
More importantly, the Griffins, the No. 6 seed in the division, defeated the No. 3 Cougars by a cumulative score of 3-1 over their two-game series, and now advance to the quarterfinals round, which begins Wednesday.
Under the format for the new Open Division, each team’s cumulative score for both games is used to determine the winner.
Los Alamitos (16-5-5) defeated the Cougars (18-4-1) 2-1 in their opening-round game Thursday at Los Alamitos.
The Griffins were awarded the free kick when a foul for hand ball inside the box was called against the Cougars.
Prior to the foul, the Griffins’ Victoria Bloch was dribbling the ball along the left side of field and sent a cross pass into the box.
“It’s a great feeling because I know we’ve been working hard since our game at home and this game,” said Zacarias, who had two assists in Thursday’s game to go along with her goal on Saturday. “We’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing. So obviously it’s worth it with all of our hard work. It feels amazing, but we know we have to continue. We know we’re not even close to being done.”
The format will be the same for the next leg, which are the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
If the Griffins have a higher cumulative score over the two games, they’ll advance to a division final for the second year in a row. Los Alamitos will face the winner of the No. 7 seed Mater Dei-No. 2 seed Santiago of Corona series.
All three of the Griffins’ goals in the series were scored off set pieces, which included goals off of a corner kick and free kick in the first game and then the penalty kick in the second game.
“We work at a lot of those in practice and they paid dividends,” Los Alamitos coach Pat Rossi said.
With eight starters returning from last season’s team that played in a Southern Section final and a state final, experience was a key factor in the victory, Rossi said.
“There was a big sophomore class last year that are juniors so now they’re upperclassmen,” Rossi said. “They’ve been going to (Southern Section) finals and to state finals. They’re used to these moments.”
Prior to being selected to play in the Open Division for the playoffs, the Cougars and Griffins were ranked No. 5 and No. 6 respectively in Division 1 of the CIF Southern Section.
The teams were squaring off for the first time this season.
“To end up being ranked in the top eight and in the first ever Open Division, I think that is something for us to be very proud of,” Capistrano Valley coach Erick Ornelas said. “Overall, having the record that we had, I think it showed the caliber of players that we had to get here.
“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the job done here over the last two games, but the score doesn’t reflect what the game was today. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the ball moving.”
