IRVINE — Top-seeded Granite Hills entered the CIF Southern Section boys soccer playoffs with a tall order, both literally and figuratively. On the other side, University represented the tallest team the Cougars had faced all season.
Big. Talented. Motivated.
It was too much for the visitors from Apple Valley. Third-seeded University scored a 3-0 victory over Granite Hills in the Division 4 title game Saturday to claim the program’s second section championship, its first since 2018.
The fourth-place team from the eight-team Pacific Coast League, University improved to 15-5-1. Desert Sky League champ Apple Valley dropped to 16-5-5.
Granite Hills controlled the early going, but was unable to get anything past goalkeeper Lucca Clouthier, who had three saves – including one brilliant effort – in the first 13 minutes.
“After he did that, it woke us up,” said University junior Arya Tayaranibeegham. “Man of the match. Unbelievable. He’s been doing that all season.”
University’s Arya Tayaranibeegham scored a goal in the first half of the team’s 3-0 victory over Granite Hills in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 championship game Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Photo by Martin Henderson)That first remarkable save was the one that set the tone, and he matched it with another in the 53rd minute that protected a lead and signaled an opening of the floodgates.
Clouthier called them his two best saves of the season, and it was for that reason that coach Martin Wallwork had him accept the championship plaque in the postgame ceremonies.
“We’ve conceded one goal in the last eight games,” Wallwork said. “He didn’t have a lot to do, but my God, the two he saved, he had no right saving them, but he came up big. In the playoffs and finals, your big players have to step up.”
Clouthier, a 6-foot-3 senior, finished unofficially with four saves and a night to remember.
His excellence made the Trojans’ first goal all they would need. It came off the foot of Tayaranibeegham with two minutes left in the first half. He did the honors from almost point-blank range after the ball bounced around following a free kick.
“After that first goal, I saw our team play with a little more morale, a lot more intensity, everything,” Clouthier said. “We were pressing more, we were doing better, the ball was on the other side of the field more. Everything was just better. After the first goal, I knew I was going to have a ring on my finger.”
University took no fewer than 17 shots to the Cougars’ nine, and Granite Hills sophomore keeper Phoenix Ragen had five saves, but the onslaught eventually proved too much.
In the 61st minute, Ragen made a diving save on Kasra Ghoddousi’s breakaway, but the ball trickled off Ragen’s hands and Jake Rabold beat him to the ball and knocked it in, the ball just inches from the keeper.
That, Ragen said, was the goal that ended the game for all practical purposes.
His team appeared different after that, beaten. And University scored again seven minutes later when Pavlos Mikhael scored from about 25 yards on a direct free kick into the upper right corner, an indefensible shot.
“There’s no room for error, especially in a CIF final,” Ragen said. “I think we played well in the first half, but after we got scored on is where we started letting down.”
The decisive second half was set up by the first Clouthier save and the Tayaranibeegham score in the first half that finally broke the ice.
“After that first goal hit the back of the net, our motivation and confidence sky-rocketed,” Tayaranibeegham said. “We stopped playing scared.
“I can’t ask for anything better, with a better team or better coaching staff. I’ve never had this amount of happiness in my life.”
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