Laguna Hills Beats Aliso Niguel on Penalty Kick

What it came down to Thursday as the Laguna Hills girls’ soccer team was attempting to win its 27th-consecutive Pacific Coast League game and finish its second-consecutive season as the undefeated league champion, was this:

One of the county’s best goalkeepers and one of the county’s best midfielders squaring off on a penalty kick at Aliso Niguel High.

The result was a 1-0 victory for Laguna Hills and another league championship.

Laguna Hills’ Stacy Roberts set the ball on the penalty-kick mark after a foul in the 48th minute and wondered how she was going to get a shot around Aliso Niguel’s Kirsten Roy in goal.

Roberts and Roy not only have played on rival high school teams for four years, but also have played for years on rival club teams: Roberts plays for the Mission Viejo Shamrocks and Roy for the San Juan Capistrano Blues.

“She always knows I go to the right. That’s why I kind of hesitated,” Roberts said.

Goalkeepers must guess on penalty kicks and dive the moment the ball is kicked.

Roy guessed Roberts would shoot to the right and dived.

Roberts shot left.

Laguna Hills finished 17-6-1 overall and 9-0-1 in league. Laguna Hills’ lone tie was Feb. 4 with University, 0-0.

Aliso Niguel (8-9-3, 5-3-2) finished in third place in league behind University (10-4-3, 6-2-2), which defeated Estancia, 4-0, Thursday.

Laguna Hills Coach Kevin Macare feared this finale from the moment he saw the schedule in the preseason.

“We didn’t want to have to come over here with the league championship on the line,” Macare said.

Turns out, the Hawks clinched the league title with a victory over Costa Mesa Tuesday.

“It [would have been] easy to get down today, but we tried to make it a positive and say, ‘This is the best chance to prepare going into CIF [Southern Section playoffs],” Macare said.

Playoff brackets will be announced Monday and the first round will be played Saturday.