SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION III BOYS’ SOCCER PLAYOFFS : Laguna Hills Shuts Down Anaheim

Being a third baseman on his high school baseball team, Mike Messinger knows all about stopping screaming drives with virtually no time to react.

Messinger, who also is the Laguna Hills goalkeeper, knew what to expect Tuesday when he had to face a penalty kick by Anaheim’s Eddy Escobar.

As Escobar booted a rocket, Messinger dived to his left and deflected the ball, and Laguna Hills held on to defeat Anaheim, 1-0, in a Southern Section Division III playoff game.

With the victory, Laguna Hills (13-5-8) advances to a quarterfinal game against Alta Loma, a 3-1 winner over El Centro Central Union.

“I wasn’t worried,” said Messinger, who recorded his school-record 14th shutout of the season. “I was watching his foot. I knew if he opened up his foot, he would hit it to the left. He did and I moved.”

Moving was a serious problem for both teams. The field was muddy and good footing was impossible.

“It took us out of our style,” Anaheim Coach Joe Chavez said of the mud. “We’re a quick team that uses short passes. We couldn’t do that. It really equaled things out.”

Jeff Sturdivan scored the game’s only goal five minutes into the second half. He knocked in a rebound after Anaheim goalkeeper Joel Vasquez made a big save with heavy traffic in front of the net.

Anaheim (19-3-3) had plenty of good opportunities to tie the game late. First, Escobar had the penalty kick that Messinger stopped. Then Anaheim missed on three direct kicks in the final four minutes.

“Those last few minutes took forever,” Laguna Hills Coach Scott Johnson said. “What helped us is that we’ve played a lot of muddy games this year. I was concerned about their passing. I think the mud slowed them down.”

Messinger said he hopes the Hawks aren’t ready to slow down in the playoffs.

“We got to this round last year,” Messinger said. “It’s time to go further.”

In other Division III games:

Brea-Olinda 1, Bell Gardens 0--After a scoreless first half, Mike Brunet scored on a header 20 minutes into the second half for visiting Brea-Olinda, which will meet Arcadia, a 5-2 winner over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, in the quarterfinals Thursday.

Jeff Miller had nine saves for Brea-Olinda (14-2-4) to post his 12th shutout of the season. Brea-Olinda has allowed only three goals in the last 14 games.

Trabuco Hills 5, Arroyo Grande 1--Aaron Conklin scored two goals and Ryan Carlisle and John Doll each had two assists for host Trabuco Hills (14-7-2), which advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinals to play the Ontario Chaffey-North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake winner.