Giffins to face Millikan on Thursday
While all around him were screaming, Los Al sophomore Evan Bacani calmly waited for his opportunity, then cut inside and found an opening from 18 yards out and sent a bullet into the upper left corner of the net to give the Griffin Boys soccer team a 1-0 win over Aliso Niguel in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs Tuesday afternoon at Laurel.
With the win the Griffins advance to a quarterfinal battle against No. 2 seed Millikan of Long Beach in a match to be played Thursday at 3pm on the Long Beach campus.
It was the third straight overtime soccer match for the Laurel High Field with both the boys anjd girls first round matches going into overtime. And all three saw Griffin teams certainly control, if not dominate play, but for naught as the home teams have not been able to finish opportunities. The Girls paid the price and were upset by Mater Dei on Friday. The boys, thanks to a great bouncem and a lot of spin, managed to eeek out a win last Thursday in their first round match against San Marcos.
They again had their chances against Aliso, but a couple great opportunities went wide and high and all the Griffin fans and parents could do was wait to see what the fickle soccer gods had in store. Fortunately, a couple minutes into the second overtime period the ball ended up at the feet of Bacani who beat out some bigger Aliso players to gain control at midfield. Spinning to the outside, Bacani carried the ball calmly up the right side and watched as Fabrizio Soto sprint up the right sideline calling for the ball. Parents and coaches yelled suggestions to Bacani to shoot it now, or send it across to junior star forward Ozzie Yanez., who was drawing double and triple teams all day. Bacani moved forward as the defense followed Soto but also anticipated the pass to Yanes. Bacani cut inside one defender and an alley opened, giving him a clear look at the goal.
Aliso defenders rushed to close the lane but Bacani unleashed his game-winning rocket before they could reach him.
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