Both teams had chances \u2014 South Hills early and Estancia late \u2014 but failed to finish them in a defensive battle primarily staged in the middle third, and the Eagles (15-1-2) succumbed at the death, missing its last two spot kicks after taking the lead in the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
![\"Estancia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771028831_761_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Estancia\u2019s Vanessa Pastrana (9) battles Jordyn Le (19) of South Hills for possession on Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Don Leach \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
It came down to Aisleen Avalos, an All-CIF center back who had been magnificent over 100 minutes, and the bounce didn\u2019t go her way.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s played this game forever, been in shootouts before, knows how it goes. She took it in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s unfortunately going to be a winner, and there\u2019s also going to be a loser,\u201d said Avalos, whose dominance at the center of a back three quieted a Huskies attack that ought to have gone ahead at the start, after a half-hour or mere moments into the second half. \u201cI don\u2019t believe so much in winning and losing. I have more of the philosophy of winning and learning, so I take this as a learning experience. …<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I know I need to go work on my PKs when I get home.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Estancia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771028832_306_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Estancia\u2019s Jana Akins (4) tries to control a dribble from South Hills\u2019 Jazelle Touzard (22) during Thursday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
(Don Leach \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
It was a tough finish to a tough game. Estancia had the advantage when goalkeeper Abby McIntyre denied Huskies catalyst Madisson Montiel and Jana Akins converted off the bottom of the crossbar on the third round of penalties, but Hailey Gallegos dived to stop Megan Perez and Avalos on the Eagles\u2019 final two kicks to send South Hills (10-4-2) to a second-round meeting Saturday at Paloma Valley (12-6-5).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hope that your goalkeeper makes one save, and Abby did,\u201d head coach Josh Juarez said. \u201cBut a lot of times, PKs are like a coin flip. You can practice them, but it doesn\u2019t really prepare you for what you\u2019re going to feel when you\u2019re out there. We\u2019re not doing PKs [in practice] after they\u2019ve been playing 100 minutes, up and down the field, and you\u2019ve got the crowd here, and it\u2019s to move on to the next round. You can\u2019t replicate that. …<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks to go out like that, but one loss the whole year? It\u2019s been a heck of a season. And I felt we were rewarded by getting a worthy opponent in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Estancia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771028832_748_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Estancia\u2019s Aisleen Avalos (21) moves ball upfield into a scoring position past South Hills\u2019 Michelle Garcia (2) on Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Don Leach \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
Estancia jumped up to Division 3 after two seasons among the Division 5 powers and faced a storied South Hills program that has played in the top three divisions for more than a decade; a team that was, Eagles midfield leader Vanessa Pastrana said, \u201ca lot more skilled, a lot more fast-paced than what we were used to playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eagles were overpowered at first and would have trailed with greater precision from Emma Valdez, whose header from a corner kick clanked off the left post in the sixth minute. Avalos said her \u201cheard dropped to my stomach\u201d as she watched the ball come off Valdez\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
Estancia found its footing soon after, then weathered two more should-bes, with Zoe Duran nodding wide in the 30th minute and Natalia Vasquez missing an open net two minutes after the break. It was the Eagles\u2019 game the rest of the way, greatly through the work of Pastrana, an All-CIF, Vanguard University-bound striker who dropped a line this season, and fellow midfielders Perez and Valeria Cruz, whom Juarez calls \u201ccerebral players\u201d who \u201care really the calm in our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Estancia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771028832_703_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Estancia\u2019s Paloma Vallejo (10) battles against Jazelle Touzard (22) of South Hills during Thursday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
(Don Leach \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
The Eagles created their first real chances in succession not quite 15 minutes into the second half, the best from a Avalos lob that Akins headed onto Paloma Vallejo\u2019s path, and nearly netted a 70th-minute winner as Pastana went one-on-one with Gallegos, her club teammate a year ago. She never got off her shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an idea of what I was going to do, and I didn\u2019t time it well,\u201d Pastrana said. \u201cI thought I could run a little more, but I guess I couldn\u2019t. I should have shot it earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estancia had the better overtime opportunities \u2014 Pastrana put a shot off the top of the crossbar and the Cal State Northridge-bound Akins just missed on a shot across the goalmouth \u2014- and penalties decided it. Pastrana and Vallejo matched South Hills\u2019 first two shooters, McIntyre\u2019s save provided the edge, then Gallegos took care of Perez and Avalos. <\/p>\n
![\"Estancia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771028833_291_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Estancia\u2019s Jana Akins (4) makes a move with the ball to secure possession against South Hills on Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Don Leach \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
She pushed the last shot off the right post, and it caromed back across the goal line, never crossing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to parents, the ball was in the net,\u201d she said. \u201cObviously, parents are going to be a little biased. It\u2019s an unfortunate thing. But you win some, you lose some.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other first-round playoff matches Thursday: <\/p>\n
Mater Dei 2, Huntington Beach 0: The Oilers were blanked at home in an Open Division match.<\/p>\n
No. 6-seeded Huntington Beach (13-2-5) plays the second game of the two-game series on Saturday at No. 3 Mater Dei.<\/p>\n
Edison 2, Mission Viejo 0: Miki Flynn and Audrey Scrimgeour scored second-half goals for the Chargers, who opened the Division 1 playoffs with a home win. <\/p>\n
Edison (12-7-3) plays at Eastvale Roosevelt on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Newport Harbor 2, Chaminade 1: Lily Ure and Cassie Jacoby scored for the Sailors in the Division 1 match on the road Thursday. <\/p>\n
Mia Knox and Reese Pluma had assists for Newport Harbor (14-5-4), which hosts Moorpark in the second round Saturday at 6 p.m. <\/p>\n
Sage Hill 4, Norco 0: The Lightning earned a home win Thursday to begin the Division 3 playoffs.<\/p>\n
Sage Hill (8-1-2), last year\u2019s Division 4 champion, plays at Quartz Hill on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Costa Mesa 2, Ventura 1: The Mustangs won their Division 3 opener at home Thursday.<\/p>\n
Costa Mesa (12-2-5) plays at La Ca\u00f1ada in the second round Saturday.<\/p>\n
Yucaipa 1, Pacifica Christian Orange County 0: The Tritons (15-5-2) were blanked in their Division 4 opener on the road Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ocean View 2, Barstow 0: The Seahawks opened the Division 6 playoffs with a home win Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ocean View (10-6-3) plays at Desert Hot Springs in the second round Saturday.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Matt Szabo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Estancia\u2019s magical girls\u2019 soccer season ended just as it was taking off, victim to a formidable foe, opportunities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[192430,49,48,192432,24525,8824,192429,192433,192434,51816,149352,8987,69105,19685,2732,561,153458,192431,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-473401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-aisleen-avalos","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cif-opener","12":"tag-division","13":"tag-eagles","14":"tag-estancia-girl","15":"tag-hailey-gallegos","16":"tag-home-win-thursday","17":"tag-minute","18":"tag-pastrana","19":"tag-penalty-kick","20":"tag-playoff-opener","21":"tag-saturday","22":"tag-shot","23":"tag-soccer","24":"tag-soccer-season","25":"tag-south-hills","26":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}