Motivation moves Eagles

Bryce Alderton

Estancia High boys soccer coach Gannon Burks has challenged his team

this season with a rhetorical question: “Do you want to be remembered

or forgotten?”

The first-year coach wants his players to create a legacy that

lasts more than just one game, though Friday’s Golden West League

showdown with nationally ranked Saddleback was as stern a test for

the Eagles in their quest for a CIF Southern Section Division III

playoff berth.

Estancia answered the challenge to an extent, tying the

Roadrunners, 1-1, ranked No. 2 in the nation in this week’s

studentsports.com rankings, after 100 total minutes.

The teams played two, 10-minute overtime sessions after

regulation.

The Eagles (6-5-2, 5-3-2 in league), holding on to third place in

league, were 10 minutes away from sending Saddleback (20-0-2, 9-0-2)

to its first league loss in at least two years.

But senior midfielder Carlos Godinez found a hole in the Eagle

defense and headed in a cross from Isidro Guevara to tie it at 1 in

the 70th minute and with the tie, the Roadrunners clinched their

fourth league title in the last five years.

The Eagles, though, were hardly dejected.

“That’s the best we’ve played all season,” said Burks of a game

that featured Eagle sophomore goalkeeper Marco Burciaga tallying 17

saves, including a two-handed leaping stop of a header by Godinez

late in the second half.

“The older guys are feeding the younger guys and the younger guys

played like seniors. The seniors took charge and got players where

they needed to be.”

A sophomore and two seniors gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead in the

first three minutes of the contest.

Edgar Rodriguez one-touched a ball to senior forward Rafael

Hernandez, who promptly crossed to senior Angel Cirilo, who knocked

it in from 10 yards out.

“When we scored that first goal, I relaxed,” said Burciaga, who

admitted he was nervous before the game.

He used any adrenaline in his favor, however, batting away several

balls and making a key save on a point-blank shot by Godinez on a

breakaway nearly 20 minutes into the second half.

Both teams had numerous chances to up their goal totals in a

matchup of two teams with loads of speed.

On one sequence in the second half, Burciaga corralled a loose

ball and his outlet kick found senior Audi Reyes in stride along the

west sideline. Junior Pedro Duarte one-timed a pass from Reyes, but

the shot sailed right.

Sophomore Chris Pizarro and Cirilo broke loose on several attacks

and often worked in sequence with their passes.

“We controlled the middle,” Burks said.

The Eagles’ best scoring chance in overtime occurred in the first

10-minute session and involved Hernandez and Cirilo again.

Hernandez dribbled along the wing and fed Cirilo in the middle of

the field. Cirilo fired a bullet that veered left.

The Roadrunners, who defeated Estancia, 3-0, in the teams’ earlier

meeting this season, outshot the Eagles, 25-18, Friday, a game that

also included three red cards -- two incurred by Estancia.

The Eagles played the final 30 minutes of regulation and overtime

without a key midfielder.

Saddleback Coach Mel Silva, though, said the Eagles were much

improved.

“[Estancia] was more disciplined and stuck to their game plan,”

Silva said. “Credit them. They never gave up and kept battling.

“Both teams went at it hard, but it wasn’t dirty.”

Eagles senior sweeper Geo Macias, in on several blocked shots,

said his legs could only do so much before energy started to wane in

the final minutes.

“You can’t time plays the same way you do in the beginning,”

Macias said.

Motivation, though, never waned for the Eagles, Macias said.

“Our intensity was way up, we were in the right place to win,” he

said.

The Eagles will try to move closer to the program’s first CIF

playoff berth in four seasons when they host Santa Ana, the league’s

second place team, at 3 p.m. Monday.