Pierson, Prestegard Combine for Five of Edison’s Six Goals

With a dazzling display of precision and speed, the Edison girls’ soccer team ran over visiting Aliso Niguel, 6-0, in a Southern Section Division I wild-card game Wednesday.

Yvonne Pierson, who has played in the midfield the last two games after playing most of the season at stopper, scored three goals to lead the Chargers. Heidi Prestegard added two more goals and Annie Benington scored the final goal of the game in the 79th minute.

Edison (13-9-2) will play at Long Beach Wilson (14-4-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday in a first-round game.

The Chargers’ powerful scoring display came on the heels of a practice in which they struggled to find the goal. Edison Coach Kerry McGrath-Crooks insisted in Tuesday’s practice that someone score before the Chargers could go home. They were still on the field 20 minutes after practice usually ends before someone finally hit the net with a shot.

In the game, however, the Chargers couldn’t miss and capitalized on excellent play in the midfield from Loree Tamanaha and Prestegard on the wing. Edison got off to a quick start, taking a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes.

Prestegard scored first in the 13th minute, taking a well-placed pass from Kristina Furniss and chipping the ball high over the head of Aliso Niguel goalkeeper Kirsten Roy. Pierson scored two minutes later on a breakaway, taking the ball to the side of the goal area then beating Roy and shooting back across the goal.

Five minutes later, Pierson scored again after a free kick from Furniss.

“Basically, our game strategy was to come out as hard as we could in the first 15 minutes,” McGrath-Crooks said.

With Edison leading, 3-0, 20 minutes into the first half, Aliso Niguel (8-10-3) began to show signs of flagging and McGrath-Crooks sent in reserves for Pierson, Prestegard and Tamanaha.

“They were just better than us,” Aliso Niguel Coach Sharon Alvarez said. “They beat us to the ball. They were efficient passers, they had great touch, and we just were a little out of sync.”

The game brought an end to the excellent high school career of Roy, who will play at UC Irvine in fall. Roy has had 16 shutouts in the last two seasons and was an All-Southern Section Division II selection last season. Roy had three saves before moving to forward in the second half.