Boys soccer: Eagles settle for tie

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - It was the same old story for the Estancia High boys

soccer team. Score early and hang on.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, their one goal could only muster a 1-1

tie with host University Wednesday afternoon in a battle for a Pacific

Coast League playoff spot.

“It’s been the same story for us all season long,” Estancia Coach

Steve Crenshaw said. “We score early then fall back on our heels. Our

intensity let up and you can’t do that against a team like Uni.”

Wednesday’s tie eliminates the Eagles (9-4-6, 5-2-3 in league) from

the PCL title chase, while the Trojans (10-6-6, 5-1-3) still have a

makeup game with Northwood Friday. A win would give Uni a share of the

PCL title with Costa Mesa.

Estancia got on the scoreboard just 13 minutes into the game when

senior Juan Zarate took a pass from junior Victor Cervantes, split the

Trojans’ defense and snuck a shot into the lower-left corner of the goal.

Ten minutes later, Uni tied the game when junior Jason Johnson got

hold of a loose ball near the goal and found an opening.

Estancia had a couple of chances to regain the lead, but opportunities

by Zarate, Armando Ortiz and Javier Millan slipped wide of the goal.

Eagles’ goalie Giovanni Gonzalez had eight saves, including three from

point-blank range that preserved the tie.

“We’ve been going back and forth with Giovanni and Adam (Kapko),”

Crenshaw said. “Adam’s battling the flu, so we kept Giovanni in the

entire game and did a great job for us.”

The second half was controlled by University as Estancia fought off

wave after wave of Uni offense.

“We’re still young,” Crenshaw said. “I’m starting six sophomores and

even though they are still very talented, they are also very young and

inexperienced.”

Gonzalez came up with a big leg save on a Uni breakaway to prevent one

scoring opportunity and the officials took care of two others.

Two Trojans’ goals were disallowed in the final eight minutes by

offside infractions.

“We let them get back in the game,” Crenshaw said. “We stopped doing

the things that made us successful because we dropped our intensity.”

Junior midfielder Ricardo Garcia was given a red card for

unsportsmanlike play and will have to sit out the Eagles’ first playoff

game, should they make the playoffs.

Northwood, with two games yet to play coming into Wednesday, had 10

points.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how the other games play out,”

Crenshaw said.