Girls soccer: Edison blanks Harbor, 3-0

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - When their storybook season came to an end Tuesday,

Newport Harbor High’s Sailors were already starting to discuss 2002 and a

return trip to the CIF Southern Section Division II girls soccer

playoffs.

“We lose five seniors, but we’ve got a bunch of good players coming

back and they’re already talking about next year,” Newport Harbor Coach

Jason Sorrell said, following his team’s 3-0 loss to visiting Edison in

the second round of the Division II playoffs.

“They’ve got a taste (of the postseason) and they want to go back.”

Newport Harbor (12-7-4), which won two playoff games to reach the

second round, the school’s first victories ever in the postseason, was

turned away by the Chargers (21-1-2) on every scoring opportunity,

including a key goalie save late in the first half.

“That save by Jenna Huff changed the game,” Edison Coach Kerry Crooks

said, referring to the junior goalie’s leaping save in the 39th minute,

when Newport Harbor’s Amy Burlingham fired a rocket from 12 yards out,

only to be denied when Huff tipped it over the net.

“My feeling,” Crooks added, “was that if (the Sailors) couldn’t score

on that kind of shot, they weren’t going to be able to score.”

Newport Harbor dominated early, but Edison’s Jane Wyche gave the

Chargers a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute on a shot that ricocheted off a

Newport defender and into an open corner of the net.

“(The Chargers) got that all important first goal,” Sorrell said.

Wyche controlled a high-bouncing pass, squared up and shot with her

left foot. Newport Harbor goalie Kiissa Tyler (four saves) was in

position for a save, but Wyche’s shot attempt deflected off an opposing

player and squirted in another direction.

“I thought we dominated the game up to that point,” said Sorrell,

whose team, which finished third in the Sea View League, defeated Edison

in the season opener, 2-1, and lost to the Chargers in a nonleague game,

2-0, in Game 10 of the campaign.

“This was a much tougher game than the first two,” Crooks said. “(The

Tars) gave us our only loss this season, so we were a little fearful of

them. They knew us and we knew them. Newport Harbor was totally

underrated all season.”

Burlingham, Tyler, Amy Ross, Taryn Flamson, Amber Taylor and Lauren

Birchfield will be among Newport Harbor’s top returning players next

season.

The Sunset League champion Chargers, which now has a 23-game unbeaten

streak, recorded their 19th shutout of the season with a strong back line

and the play of goalies Huff (four saves in the first half) and Ali

Binder (two in the second half). They have posted 11 of their shutouts in

the last 12 games and have given up only two goals in the last 16

contests.

“We still felt we had a good chance at halftime, but when (the

Chargers) got that second goal,” Sorrell said, “I saw the kids’ faces and

knew we were done. They got two goals (in the second half) on the

counter. They’ve got a lot of speed.”

In the 61st minute, Edison’s Brooke Thulin scored her team-leading

16th goal of the season on an impressive solo breakaway.

Thulin, who beat the angle of two Harbor defenders racing to cut her

off, unleashed a shot that deflected off the right post and into the

goal. Tyler injured her left elbow on the play and came out of the game,

replaced by sophomore Jonna Fredriksen.

Four minutes later, Edison scored again as Kira Simon punched in a

cross from Stacia Hoover.

Thulin earned an assist on Edison’s first goal on a flip throw, only

two minutes after entering the game. Thulin arrived late, about 20

minutes into the game, because of her grandmother’s funeral.

There were no yellow or red cards, despite physical play and several

hard collisions, including one late in the game between Edison’s Debi

Lindenberger and Newport Harbor’s Meredith Miller after a ball rolled out

of bounds. Many Newport fans were angry at the referees because no card

was given.

“I thought the ref let a lot go,” Sorrell said. “But that’s good. The

ref let us play. We just didn’t play aggressive.”