Boys soccer: Mustangs hit the road

The Costa Mesa High boys soccer team enters a challenging second

week of Pacific Coast League play with a share of first place. How Coach

Eugene Day’s Mustangs emerge from road dates with Estancia (Wednesday)

and Corona del Mar (Thursday) will have a great deal to do with whether

they can successfully defend the PCL crown they earned last season.

Mesa (7-3-1, 1-0-1 in league) opened PCL action with a 2-0 win over

University, then tied Northwood Friday, 2-2.

CdM (4-6-2) and Northwood also have 1-0-1 league records, while Laguna

Beach could be included in the logjam if it was victorious in an

unreported result from Friday’s meeting with Uni.

The Sea Kings host Uni Wednesday, before squaring off against CdM.

Meanwhile, Estancia (3-8, 0-2), which follows Wednesday’s crosstown

showdown by visiting Laguna Beach Friday, needs some quick solutions to

the problems that have mystified Coach Steve Crenshaw thus far.

“Right now, it’s hard for me to read what this team is going to do,”

Crenshaw said. “We’re having a problem with leadership on the field. We

can play, because we’re basically the same team we had last year. I don’t

know if this week is do or die, but it’s definitely gut check time.”

Crenshaw, however, said relative balance in the league may afford the

Eagles time to get their act together.

“I haven’t been able to figure out our league,” Crenshaw said. “It has

been kind of back and forth and up and down. Every team looks like a good

team, so what happens the first round of league could, theoretically, be

totally reversed the second round.”

Crenshaw, however, admits the Eagles would be “in scramble mode,”

should they fail to come away with a win this week.

Newport Harbor split its first two Sea View League games, falling to

Aliso Niguel Wednesday, 5-2, then beating Irvine Friday, 3-2.

The Sailors (5-5-1, 1-1) visit Laguna Hills Wednesday and host

Woodbridge Friday.

Sage Hill (4-3-1, 1-0-1 in the Academy League) visits league foe

Calvary Chapel of Downey Tuesday, then hosts Oxford Academy Thursday.

-- by Barry Faulkner