Girls’ Soccer: Chargers fall in final

ALISO VIEJO — More than a month before the Edison High girls’ soccer team meets Los Alamitos for the first time in Sunset League play, the rivals played Monday night for the Aliso Cup title.

Such an early-season meeting isn’t exactly unusual. Last year, the Chargers beat the Griffins in the semifinals on their way to winning the tournament.

Both teams gathered Monday on the field at Aliso Niguel High after the game, and each got a big cardboard box filled with sweatshirts.

Only Los Alamitos, however, earned the trophy.

The Griffins hung on for a 2-1 victory, dealing Edison its first loss of the season and denying the Chargers’ repeat bid.

And, while Edison Coach Kerry Crooks couldn’t be happy after a loss, she liked her team’s fight in the second half.

“We just have to clean some things up,” Crooks said. “We have some good ideas, some good attacks, but we’re just a half a step off here, a half a step off there. That’s what preseason is for, you know.

“We’re definitely raw right now, and that’s OK. I have a lot of returners from last year, and we were clicking a little early. We kind of peaked a little early, too. So I’m not that upset about this .We got a lot of things out of this tournament. While nobody likes to lose, it’ll make us stronger in the long run.”

Los Alamitos (6-0) scored twice in the latter part of the first half to take a commanding advantage. First, Griffins junior Vanessa Millsaps’ run down the left side produced a cross to senior Amanda Jones, who spun near the top of the box before depositing her shot in the right-hand corner.

Los Al doubled its lead nine minutes later, when senior Ally LaCarra-Platt split two Edison defenders and scored.

Edison (4-1-2), which had earned penalty-kick wins over Dana Hills and Moorpark to advance to the title game, tried to rally in the 50th minute. Senior Cassidy Helenihi, a University of San Francisco commit, played the ball ahead to junior Michael Guptill in the box.

Guptill, a Dartmouth commit, collided with the goalie, but not before redirecting the ball into the left side of the net for a goal. It was the first goal that Los Alamitos had allowed in the tournament.

But Edison couldn’t get the equalizer. Perhaps the best chance came in the 66th minute, when junior Teagan Wasserman played the ball up to senior forward Amy Feinstein, who crossed it in from the right. But nobody was home to put the ball in.

Senior team captain Zoe Clevely (two saves) and senior Jessica Neighbors (three saves) split time in goal for the Chargers, who also got solid defensive efforts from starters Emma Nichols, Lexi Oates, Taylor Wasserman and Maddie Macias. Macias, a tenacious junior, got into a couple of tussles with Los Al’s speedy Millsaps.

“She’s really feisty,” Clevely, a Pepperdine commit, said with a smile of Macias. “I’ll be like, ‘Hey, tuck in,’ and she’ll be like, ‘No, I got this.’ She gets it done, man, for sure.”

Clevely was key in Edison’s Aliso Cup finals appearance, as she stopped one shot each in the tournament quarterfinal shootout win over Dana Hills and the semifinal victory against Moorpark. On Monday night, she also highlighted the play of midfielders Rachelle Elve and Amy Kirk, who provided a spark when they were subbed in during the second half.

Clevely said the team will be ready to play the Griffins in league. Last year, the teams finished tied for second, just behind league champion Huntington Beach.

Edison next returns to action Dec. 20 with a nonleague home game against Canyon.

“[This loss] shows us that we do still have a lot of work to do,” Clevely said. “I think a lot of us were maybe a little bit over our heads coming into the season. We have like 13 seniors, [seven college] commits. We were like, ‘We’re going to be a powerhouse,’ but it’s not just about the individuals. It’s not me, it’s we, together. If you watch the game, we did really well defensively separately, and in the midfield we did well separately. But none of them were connecting together. We couldn’t connect with our forwards in that final third area.”