Los Alamitos Wins Title

It had been a while since Los Alamitos won a Southern Section girls’ soccer championship, but the Griffins’ third title proved worth the wait.

Senior forward Kyrstie Wade and junior forward Bo Medina each scored second-half goals to lift the top-seeded Griffins to a 2-0 victory over unseeded Santa Ana Mater Dei in the Division I final Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton.

“I’m way excited. I wanted this since Day 1 of high school,” Medina said. “We’ve never been able to do it, but we knew this was the team this year, and we knew we were going to do it.”

Los Alamitos (22-2-5), ranked No. 1 in the nation by Student Sports magazine, earned its first championship since sharing the Division I title with Mission Viejo in 1996 and winning an outright championship over Newhall Hart in 1997.

Wade scored from just outside the goal box with an assist from Medina in the 48th minute to give the Griffins a 1-0 edge, and Medina converted a penalty kick that sealed Mater Dei’s fate in the 66th minute after she was tripped in the penalty box.

Mater Dei (13-5-5), a young team with 14 freshmen and sophomores, was bidding for its first title since 1992.

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Ventura Buena 2, Temecula Chaparral 1 -- Alyssa McDonald scored on a free kick from 20 yards in the 53rd minute at Fullerton to give the Bulldogs their third Division II championship in their fourth title-game appearance in six years.

Third-seeded Buena (19-2-6) fell to Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro in last year’s championship after sharing the title with Mission Viejo in 2001 and beating Mira Costa for the title in 2000.

Unseeded Chaparral, which upset top-seeded El Dorado on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals, struck first Saturday.

Aaren Casimiro scored the Pumas’ only goal with a twisting kick in a crowd in the goal box at the 14-minute mark. Senior midfielder Marisol Arevalo scored the Bulldogs’ first goal with a bicycle kick in the 22nd minute.

Chaparral outshot the Bulldogs, 9-7, for the game, but the Pumas (20-3-5) were unable to convert on several attempts in the last 10 minutes.

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Walnut 1, Fullerton Sunny Hills 1 -- Kerri Currier scored with an assist from Christina Carriaga for second-seeded Walnut and Kristen Gaylord scored for fourth-seeded Sunny Hills in the Division III championship game at Fullerton.

The deadlock gave Walnut (20-2-4) a share of its third consecutive title. The Mustangs tied Costa Mesa, 0-0, in 2003 and beat Arroyo Grande, 2-0, in 2004 for their previous titles. Sunny Hills (23-5-2) earned a share of its first championship.

Currier scored off a centering pass from Carriaga in the 12th minute of play, but Gaylord scored on a free kick from 19 yards in the 56th minute.

Lauren Peterson

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Palos Verdes Chadwick 2, Whittier La Serna 1 -- Freshman Ashley Nendick scored the tiebreaking goal in the 73rd minute in the Division IV final at La Mirada High.

Top-seeded La Serna (22-2-2) had tied the score in the 54th minute on Danielle Gluck’s header.

Second-seeded Chadwick (22-1), which was making its first appearance in a final, took a 1-0 lead 1 minute 23 seconds into the game on Christen Press’ goal.

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Westlake Village Oaks Christian 2, Cerritos Valley Christian 2 -- Caitlyn MacKechnie scored with 2:51 to play as top-seeded Oaks Christian rallied from a 2-0 first-half deficit to tie the Division V final at La Mirada and become co-champions for the third consecutive season.

Unseeded Valley Christian (17-3-3) got goals from Lynzi Bulick in the 23rd minute and Ashley Haagsma in the 39th. The Lions (20-2-5) began their comeback when Brianna Cox scored 17 seconds after Haagsma’s goal.

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Redlands Arrowhead Christian 1, Bishop 0 -- Freshman Kristina Gomez headed in a cross from senior Dana Farquhar with 5:10 to play for her 28th goal of the season as the top-seeded Eagles won the Division VI final at La Mirada.

Freshman Naomi Sornoso and senior Heather Andrews combined on the shutout for Arrowhead Christian (24-1-1). Katrina Patrykus had 13 saves for unseeded Bishop (17-3-1).

-- Steven Herbert