Breakers capture title at Irvine tournament

The Newport-Mesa Breakers, a community girls under-10 soccer team

consisting of 8- and 9-year-olds from Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and

Corona del Mar, outscored the competition, 27-1, en route to

capturing the gold medal at the Irvine Summer Classic soccer

tournament this past weekend. The breakers posted victories over JUSA

(12-0), South County Storm (4-0), Alta Loma Aztecs (6-1) in bracket

play to advance to the final against West Valley Samba on Sunday

afternoon at UC Irvine.

In the final Heather Flores scored in the fifth minute off a

beautiful cross from Rachel Kerce. In the 10th minute Josie Jogwe

scored with a perfectly placed shot into the far post off an assist

from Courtney McIntosh. The Breakers extended their lead to 3-0 when

Anna Venturini broke down the defense with clever dribbling and beat

the Samba keeper with shot into the far post. Late in the first half

Jogwe added her second goal off a corner kick from Claire Castillo

and the Breakers’ lead increased to 4-0. Kerce finished the scoring

with a goal in the second half off an assist from Sierra Gordon

giving the Breakers a 5-0 victory.

The Breakers stingy defense, which completely shut down the Samba

attack, was led by goalie Lauren Terry and marking backs Shanay

Fischer, Claire Castillo and Brooke Lux. Andrea Chavez played well at

the striker position.

The “community team” is the product of the efforts of coaches Kirk

McIntosh and Javier Chavez. The coaches formed the team with the idea

of having a minimal cost “club” program for the youth within our

community.