Girls soccer: Sea Kings take a bite out of the Wolves

Tony Altobelli

RIVERSIDE - Home-field and enthusiasm can only take you so far.

Eventually, skill and talent prevails. Just ask the Corona del Mar High

girls soccer team.

After fighting off an inspired attack from a young Martin Luther King

High squad, the Sea Kings took control and hammered the host Wolves, 7-0,

in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs.

“We had a long bus ride and MLK was pretty fired up early,” CdM Coach

Ron Evans said. “Teams are going to be fired to play us and it’s going to

get tougher and tougher as the playoffs continue.”

With the win, the Sea Kings (25-1-3), ranked No. 1 in Division IV,

will host Cerritos Valley Christian in the quarterfinals on Thursday,

beginning at 3 p.m.

“They’ve only got one loss all year, like us, so we better be ready to

play on Thursday,” Evans said.

The Wolves (13-9-2) nearly lost the game before the opening whistle.

Their striped socks were denied by the officials because they did not

conform to the CIF rules on uniform attire.

Always the gracious guests, the Sea Kings gave their backup pair of

white socks to the Wolves and proceeded to beat the “socks” off of them,

especially in the second half.

A pesky MLK squad, combined with an uphill field and a head wind kept

CdM’s scoring to a minimum. After a number of near chances, Sea King

senior Jaycee Mahler streaked down the right side of the field and fed a

perfect pass to sophomore Elisha Morgan, who slammed the ball into the

net for a 1-0 lead.

“Jaycee has come so far for us since the beginning of the season, it’s

unreal,” Evans said. “She’s really been a major asset to our team, both

offensively and defensively.”

The second half became a Sea King scoring frenzy and midfielder

Kristin Hanson was the leader of the pack. Three minutes in, she scored

on a long shot off an assist by Jenny Long.

Two minutes later, Hanson headed in her second goal of the game for a

3-0 CdM advantage. She headed in another goal five minutes later for a

hat trick.

“Kristin appeared to me that she came ready to play,” Evans said. “It

was a great offensive game for her. We’ll need that effort again on

Thursday.”

From there, the goals continued to mount. Sophomore Lauren

Shepherdson, Mahler and Allison Brawner each scored to complete CdM’s

scoring. The Sea Kings outshot the Wolves, 32-2.

Sea Kings’ goalie Britta Vogele had two saves and posted her 13th

shutout of the season. Wolves’ goalie Raegan Finnie had 10 saves.

The game ended on a scary note as Wolves’ player Heather Amrhein fell

awkwardly and injured her back. She was taken off the field by ambulance

as a precaution for any spinal cord injury, but she did have feeling and

movement in all her extremities.

“All the girls are out here for the game and it’s always scary to see

an injury like that,” Evans said. “Hopefully, she’ll be fine.”