Costa Mesa sinks Estancia in long-awaited league game

Mustangs get the better of the Eagles when the teams finally meet after multiple postponements.COSTA MESA -- “Well, let’s see, there’s no lightning, the pump seems to be working. We might actually get this one in,” Estancia Coach John Carpenter said before Thursday’s game against Costa Mesa.

The teams, which are sharing the same home pool at Costa Mesa High this season, finally found themselves in the same pool at the same time Thursday.

Estancia came out fired up, but Costa Mesa pulled away in the third quarter to emerge with a 12-7 victory in the regular-season-finale for both teams.

Regardless of the result, both Estancia (11-12 overall, 3-3 in league) and Costa Mesa (20-7, 5-1) will advance to the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs. The Mustangs will go as the second-place team out of the Golden West League. The Eagles got the last spot as the fourth-place team.

It’ll mark the first CIF playoff appearance for Estancia senior Chad Kunert, who’s a four-year varsity starter.

“In four years, we haven’t made CIF. Finally, we do -- I’m excited to go,” Kunert said.

The Golden West League game between the city rivals had been postponed twice. The first meeting Sept. 20 was delayed because of lightning. The make-up game Oct. 25 was rescheduled for Oct. 27 at Santa Ana College because Costa Mesa’s pool had a faulty pump. That game was then canceled hours before game time because of insurance liability issues with the college.

Once the game got going, two first-half goals by Trevor McDonald helped the Eagles keep pace with the Mustangs, who got two first-half goals from Kyle Thorsness. The Mustangs led, 6-5, at halftime.

“Estancia put a lot of pressure on us early, they were ready to play,” Costa Mesa Coach Tim Postiff said.

The Mustangs came out in the second half and scored three consecutive goals -- one each by Sam Edman, Chris Medina and Skyler Twohig -- to give themselves a comfortable lead. The keys were some defensive stops that set up the goal-scoring opportunities.

“We picked up our defensive pressure,” Postiff said.

Two goals by McDonald -- who had a game-high five -- pulled Estancia to within 10-7 with 2:52 left in the game, but Costa Mesa’s Edman (three goals) scored off a rebound from John Roche’s shot with 1:36 remaining to seal the win.

Thorsness, who has more than 120 goals this season, was held to two goals. Eight different players scored for Costa Mesa.

“We wanted to balance it out,” Postiff said. “We are a better team if Kyle doesn’t score over five or six goals. He set up a lot of guys with easy goals when he’d draw a double team.”

Playoff pairings will be announced by the CIF Southern Section on Monday at 11 a.m.

Golden West League

Costa Mesa 12, Estancia 7

Score by Quarters