LOS ALAMITOS — With time winding down and no score in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 opening-round playoff game between the Mater Dei and Los Alamitos girls soccer teams, Griffins coach Pat Rossi had started to pencil in his lineup for overtime.

But as it turned out, the lineup wasn’t needed after sophomore Natalie Lobo scored with three minutes remaining in regulation to give the Griffins a 1-0 victory Wednesday over the visiting Monarchs.

The Griffins (17-6-5), ranked No. 5 in Division 1, will play Mira Costa in a second-round contest Tuesday at Mira Costa.

The Mustangs knocked off No. 4 Temecula Valley 2-1 in their first-round contest Wednesday.

Los Alamitos’ Natalie Lobo (30) celebrates with her teammates after she scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Mater Dei in the CIF-SS Division 1 soccer playoffs Wednesday, Feb. 6. (Photo by Lou Ponsi, Contributor)

“I thought we were evenly matched,” Rossi said. “It could have gone either way. It was just a matter of who was going to score first. You could tell it was going to be a one-goal game.”

The sequence leading to the winning goal started with Los Alamitos’ Katie Piburn dribbling down the middle of the field and then sending a cross pass to Sanaa Guyness, who was positioned to the left of the goal.

Guyness then shot toward the goal and then with both teams trying to control the ball, Lobo got her right foot on the ball before it hit the ground and got off a perfect kick into the left side of the goal.

The goal was only the second of the season for Lobo.

“It had been a while since I scored,” Lobo said. “I was just trying to take a lot of shots this game and try to get something in and I just went off the volley. It was about knee-high.”

Los Alamitos’ Natalie Lobo scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Mater Dei in the CIF-SS Division 1 soccer playoffs Wednesday, Feb. 6. (Photo by Lou Ponsi, Contributor)

Both teams had scoring opportunities.

The Monarchs (8-4-7) had six corner kicks which are typically good scoring opportunities, but the Griffins defended well on all of them.

In the first half, Mater Dei keeper Alyssa Esparza dove to her left to bat away a shot from Kaylee Noble.

Esparza leaped high to block another shot from getting into the goal in the half.

Guyness came close to scoring twice, kicking the ball just left of the goal in the first half and then missing slightly wide to the right late in the second.

Related Articles

With 20 minutes left in the game, Mater Dei’s Lily Biddulph was dribbling toward the goal with nobody between her and Griffins keeper Averie Gonzalez.

The freshman keeper came out of the goal to cut off Biddulph’s angle, forcing the junior to shoot over Gonzalez and over the net.

“Give them (Los Alamitos) a lot of credit,” Mater Dei coach Matty West said. “They came out really strong. We withstood the storm and we were able to get our legs underneath us and then we made some really hard pushes. I thought our girls gave us a chance.”