2-A BOYS : Beaman’s Goal Gets Laguna Hills Past Orange in Overtime

Brian Beaman scored on a header with 3:53 left in overtime and Laguna Hills High School hung on to upset Orange, 2-1, and win the Southern Section 2-A boys’ soccer championship Saturday at Gahr High School.

Top-seeded Orange had defeated its Pacific Coast League rival in all three matches this season, but Saturday night’s match belonged to Laguna Hills.

“This is what we wanted all season,” Laguna Hills Coach Scott Johnson. “And what a beautiful goal to win it on.”

Halfback Scott Clark set up Beaman with a perfect pass, sending a left-footed shot near the right goal post, just five yards in front of Orange goalie Tres Martin.

“Scotty got loose and ran a breaker to the outside,” Beaman said, “and I was supposed to head for the far post.”

After blowing past the Orange fullbacks, Beaman knocked his header just inside the right post to beat a diving Martin.

“I know I’ll never forget that moment,” Beaman said.

Laguna Hills might not have reached that moment if Johnson had followed his initial reaction and pulled halfback Eric Davis midway through the second half.

With the Hawks trailing, 1-0, Johnson decided to leave Davis in the game after he had collided with a group of players. Davis made good on his coach’s decision by scoring the typing goal on a scramble in front of the Panthers’ net at the 63 minute mark.

“I was all set to take him out, but look what he did,” Johnson said. “I think we’re all glad he stayed out there.” Johnson tried to inspire his players at halftime by telling them the next team that scored would probably win.

“Eric’s was a pivotal goal,” he said. “In the first half we were waiting for things to happen, but we’ve been trailing 1-0 at the half a number of times in the playoffs, so it wasn’t anything unusual for us.” Orange’s first half goal came from Ricky Heimer, who headed in a corner kick for his sixth goal of the playoffs and 18th of the season.

“We hit a dry spell in the first part of the second half,” Orange Coach Ed Carillo said. “But we came back hard. We just attacked in the overtime because we didn’t want to tie, and both teams played really hard.”