Laguna Beach cruises in wild-card round

The Laguna Beach girls soccer team ushered in the start of the CIF-SS playoffs with its most dominant effort of the season.

Sophomore Janie Crawford scored twice as the Breakers beat Cerritos, 5-0, in a Division 4 wild-card match Tuesday at Laguna Beach.

"The girls are feeling that they are a good team and they deserve to be here," Breakers coach Bill Rolfing said. "Scoring goals has been a challenge for us, so scoring five goals is going to give us a good boost for Thursday."

The Breakers (8-7-6) extended their unbeaten streak to eight and advanced to a first-round road match Thursday against Culver City.

Freshmen Summer Stanaland and Maddy Kristensen and junior Danielle Gromet also tallied goals for Laguna Beach.

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"We're staying confident, but keeping our cool because Culver City is a really good team," Stanaland said.

Laguna Beach took the lead in the 11th minute. Sophomore Audrey Pillsbury sent a pass into the middle of the box for Stanaland, who booted a shot that ricocheted off the post and bounced into the net.

"Audrey was able to cross it over to me, and once I saw the ball, I started running toward the goal," Stanaland said. "I stuck my foot out and luckily the ball hit the post and curved in."

Laguna Beach took a 2-0 lead in the 37th minute when Kristensen managed to get to rebound of a shot that was saved by Dons goalie Sirena Costa and tapped the ball in.

Cerritos (14-8-2) had one run toward the goal in the final seconds of the half, but sophomore Amy Hewlett cut the run off.

Crawford added to the lead early in the second half. She headed in a corner kick from freshman Katelyn Carballo in the 45th minute, then knocked a shot into the near corner of the goal in the 48th minute.

Gromet capped the scoring in the 58th minute, blasting a rebound into the net.

In other wild-card matches:

In Division 5:

Sage Hill 1, Norte Vista of Riverside 1 (Sage Hill advances on PKs, 3-1): Goalie Kekai Whitford scored the tying goal late in the second half to help the visiting Lightning (14-7-3) advance. Whitford and Lauren Thunen combined for 12 saves for Sage Hill, which will square off against Bloomington in a first-round match Thursday.

In Division 6:

Savanna 4, Ganesha of Pomona 1: Akesa Oliveit, Keyla Corez, Tonya Jacobson and Monica Noria each scored a goal for the Rebels (8-11) in their victory at home against the Giants (9-8-4). Chanell Bowman had two assists, and Casey Pulido had three saves for Savanna, which will visit Segerstrom for a first-round match Thursday.

Contact the writer: jeichelberger@ocregister.com