Prep column: From a goalie’s perspective: ‘Good riddance’

Barry Faulkner

Estancia High’s boys soccer season came to a glorious end Saturday

with a 5-2 win over top-seeded Bishop Montgomery in the CIF Southern

Section Division IV championship game at La Mirada High. And prep goalies

everywhere are probably still celebrating as conspicuously as the Eagles

themselves.

No longer will Esaul Mendoza and Cesar Terrones, perhaps the most

prolific single-season scoring combination in section history, strike

fear into the souls of those who mind the 24-foot-wide, eight-foot-high

cage. The same goal area must have seemed as cavernous as an airplane

hanger behind them, as the Aguila assassins, including senior fire baller

Irving Islas, darted within shooting range.

Mendoza, who netted his third postseason hat trick, including as pretty a

goal as I’ve seen, finished the season with 46 goals. He missed all of

one game and spent the equivalent of one more on the bench, so he

actually averaged 2.3 goals per game.

Mendoza floated and flicked effortlessly past defenders, who were often

left lunging at air, before pinpointing his shots into areas no goalie

could cover.

He is a virtual lock to be named the section’s Division IV Most Valuable

Player, yet Orange Coast College men’s coach Laird Hayes is still quietly

keeping his fingers crossed that recruiters will continue to dismiss the

diminutive dominator (5-foot-5, 130 pounds) as too small to flourish

against Division I competition.

Terrones, who was All-CIF last season and a four-year starter, also

scored against Bishop Montgomery, upping his season total to 34. At 5-6,

135, Terrones is bound for the community college level.

That’s 80 goals from two players, helping the Eagles outscore opponents,

122-14.

Islas, whose booming deliveries leave a mark on any keeper (un)fortunate

enough to intersect their path, is another departing senior.

“Getting in front of one of Irving’s shots is like committing suicide,”

Estancia Coach Steve Crenshaw said.

Islas, Mendoza and senior keeper Hilario Arriaga were the Eagles’ three

captains.

Arriaga, whose frequent stints of inactivity were made more tolerable by

the entertainment value his own offense generated, said he sympathizes

with his netminding brethren.

“I know what they have to face, because I went against it everyday in

practice,” Arriaga said. “A lot of times, the only way to stop (Eagles’)

shots is just to guess right. In our first playoff game (an 8-0

dismantling of Northview), I know I would have felt terrible giving up

that many goals.”

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Included in the postgame celebration, before an estimated crowd of 1,000,

was an attempted victory lap, led by Islas, who held the section

championship plaque over his head as he slogged through the wet dirt.

The Eagles, however, made it only a quarter of the way around the track,

before returning to their side of the field. It was one of the few runs

all season Estancia didn’t finish.

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While his teammates converged in a group hug following the final whistle,

Arriaga sprinted toward Crenshaw, leaping into his arms, before joining

his teammates.

“He’s the one who understands how much it meant to me and I’m the one who

understands how much it meant to him,” Arriaga said of the man the Eagles

address as, not coach, nor Mr. Crenshaw, but, simply, Steve.

“He’s a great friend to all of us and he’s like a second father to me.”

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Estancia’s 122 goals have been surpassed by only four teams in section

history. And the Eagles wound up just eight goals from claiming the No. 2

spot, behind La Canada’s 145 in 1995-96. What makes this more impressive,

is that Estancia (20-1-1) played at least five fewer games than the other

Division IV semifinalists, nine fewer than third-seeded St. Francis.

The discrepancy is due to Crenshaw’s decision to stop scheduling games

during Christmas vacation, when a significant portion of his roster

travels to Mexico to be with family.

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The five goals in the title game, which could have been much worse had

not one shot caromed off the cross bar and a handful of others rolled

just wide, tied the section title-game record established by six previous

champions.

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Estancia, which ended Bishop Montgomery’s 21-game unbeaten streak

(19-0-2), will take a 17-game winning streak into next season. Saturday’s

championship program lists the section’s longest winning steak at 40

(Palos Verdes from 1988-90).

This should give Crenshaw’s returners plenty to shoot for.

“It’s going to be interesting, because we have some great players coming

up off a freshmen team which won league,” Crenshaw said.

“But you just can’t replace some of our seniors. This was a special

team.”