Eagles gear up with some road work

Estancia boys’ soccer team puts in some extra running to prepare for Friday’s crucial league clash with Saddleback.Cue the foreboding music. This is the one that Estancia High’s boys’ soccer team has been waiting for.

The Eagles get their first chance against Saddleback High in a Golden West League contest Friday at 3 p.m. The showdown won’t necessarily decide the league race, but it will go a long way toward determining who has the upper hand.

The matchup doesn’t quite have the luster it did a few weeks ago. That’s when Saddleback lost to Santa Margarita, 2-1, in the semifinals of the West Coast Classic tournament. That loss ended a 42-game unbeaten streak for the Roadrunners, dating back to the 2003 CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Still, there’s plenty of motivation for Estancia for this game. The Eagles tied Saddleback, 1-1, last season -- one of only two ties in the Roadrunners’ unbeaten 26-0-2 campaign.

Estancia players thought enough of this matchup to schedule informal runs from school to the Newport Pier after practices to build the proper endurance for the Roadrunners.

On Friday, they’ll find out just how effective their work was.

* High school boys’ basketball, Estancia at Costa Mesa, 7 p.m. Tuesday: It’s a big week for the Eagles in boys’ basketball too. There’s a Thursday night matchup against Ocean View, but first up is this cross-town rivalry game that also has playoff implications. Both teams have legitimate Golden West League title aspirations, so a loss here could be deadly.

* High school girls’ basketball, Brethren Christian at Sage Hill, 6 p.m. Tuesday: Normally, Sage Hill’s biggest rival is St. Margaret’s. In this case, however, the Lightning’s key league foe are the Warriors, who finished second in league last season. Brethren Christian has a five-game winning streak entering this Academy League showdown.

* High school girls’ soccer, Corona del Mar at Tesoro, 3:15 p.m. Wednesday: It was a gauntlet of a nonleague schedule for the Sea Kings, but they appear to be better for the experience with two quick wins in the Pacific Coast League. Tesoro marks the first serious test for Corona del Mar in league and a good barometer for where the Sea Kings stand.

* College men’s basketball, Cal State Northridge at UC Irvine, 7 p.m. Friday: Welcome back, Mike Efevberha. The one-time UCI guard returns to the Bren Center as a member of the Matadors. Efevberha leads the Big West Conference in scoring, averaging 22.2 points per game.

* College men’s volleyball, UCLA at UC Irvine, 7 p.m. Friday: The Anteaters don’t have many wins against UCLA -- three altogether -- but two of them have come under Coach John Speraw. The Anteaters take aim at the Bruins and Speraw’s mentor Al Scates in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.