Eagles tie Sea Kings

Patrick Laverty

Estancia High and Corona del Mar tied, 1-1, on the field Friday in a

nonleague boys soccer match, but the postgame dispositions of each

team told much more than the score.

The Eagles (4-3-2) were in a celebratory mode after Luis Mendoza

scored with two minutes remaining to force the tie. The joy continued

when Estancia Coach Steve Crenshaw announced that he will give his

team next week off to recover from illness, which has ravaged the

team. The Eagles don’t return to the pitch until after the holidays

when they continue Golden West League play against Westminster.

The Sea Kings (5-0-2) can’t wait to return to the field, which

they will do on Dec. 26 in the Trabuco Hills tournament. Corona del

Mar dominated the game for the first 70 minutes, narrowly missing

numerous scoring chances. But Mendoza’s goal sent CdM home

disappointed.

“It feels like a loss,” Corona del Mar Coach Pat Callaghan said.

“The guys worked really, really hard. They’re disappointed in

themselves.”

The game went exactly as the Sea Kings would have liked as they

took advantage of a small field and turned it into a physical affair

that produced six yellow cards. But the most costly of those cards

went against CdM.

With the score knotted, 0-0, Sea Kings attacking midfielder Julien

Cerutti picked up his second yellow card. He had just missed a pair

of goals in the previous minutes, banging a beautiful free kick off

the crossbar and nailing the post on another shot. But the second

yellow card took him out of the game and put the Sea Kings a man

down.

“I really felt he was starting to play the best he has the whole

season in the previous 20 minutes,” Callaghan said. “It was a stupid

foul. He kicked the guy from behind and that was the second time he

did it. It’s a lesson.”

It didn’t affect the Sea Kings immediately as CdM finally got on

the scoreboard when Danny Whitaker’s through ball found Chris

Ringstrom all alone behind the defenders. Ringstrom dribbled around

the Estancia goalkeeper and pounded the ball into the back of the net

for a 1-0 lead.

But Estancia’s offense, primarily composed of senior Mendoza,

finally got on track with 10 minutes remaining after not taking a

shot on goal for the first 30 minutes of the second half.

With seven minutes remaining, Mendoza dribbled around three CdM

defenders and fired a cross to Rafael Hernandez, but his shot was

blocked by CdM’s Dominic Rubino.

“[Mendoza’s] going to stir things up eventually,” Crenshaw said.

“You can only stay with him for so long. He’s so active and so

creative. He’s going to wear you down.”

Mendoza finally did just that five minutes later, receiving a pass

and firing a quick shot that was blocked by CdM keeper Jay Zimmerman.

But the rebound came back to Mendoza, who took a second shot that was

stopped by a Sea Kings defender. Again the ball came back to a

tenacious Mendoza and this time he set off a celebration on the

Eagles sideline by scoring the game-tying goal.