The Laguna Beach AYSO girls under 14 soccer team won the Area 11 soccer championship and thus advance to the section tournament, scheduled for Feb. 8-9 in Garden Grove.
The Orange Crush advanced to the area tournament by winning Laguna Beach Region 86 tournament. They opened up the area tournament by winning their flight 2-1-1 and advancing to the semi-finals as the number one seed.
The team beat San Juan Capistrano 3-0 in the semi-final with Kate Kruger scoring two goals and Shea Skenderian the other. They kept the San Juan team scoreless with tough defense from Eliana Arthur, Madison Cecil and Shanai Auguis to move on to the finals where they played a tough Laguna Hills opponent.
That game ended with a tie 1-1 and went into a shootout where the Orange Crush came out on top (4-3) with the winning shot coming from Claire Smithers.
The teams battled back and forth with outstanding play from Olivia Steiner, Autumn McQuaid, Grace Lawler, Abby Bekken, Amber Gourley and Lalia Garcia.
