AYSO Breakers Win Club Championship

BREAKERS GOLDEN AT WINTER CLASSIC

The Newport Mesa Breakers, girls’ under-10 advance play program team representing Newport Mesa AYSO Region 97, captured the gold medal at the Irvine Winter Classic played Jan. 10-11 at UC Irvine.

The Breakers opened pool play on Saturday with a lopsided 6-0 win over Crescenta Valley Soccer Club. They followed that win with an equally one-sided 5-1 victory over Chelsea Soccer Club. On Sunday, the Breakers faced a tough squad from Fram Soccer Club and fell behind for the first time in the tournament 2-1. However Kiana Ghamari and Yaritza Garcia each scored in the second half propelling the Breakers into the championship with a 3-2 victory.

In the final, played Sunday afternoon, the Newport Breakers squared off with the Westside Breakers from Westside Los Angeles. Once again the Breaker squad found themselves behind 2-1. With less than a minute remaining Ghamari took a pass from Faith Harper, beat the right marking back and put in a beautiful shot just inside the far post. The Ghamari goal was the last play of regulation time putting the Newport squad into a shootout to determine the winner. Scoring in the shoot-out were Garcia, Harper and Paige Fults, which tied the score at 3-3. After consecutive misses by both teams, Zoe Conley, representing the eighth shooter buried her shot placing the Westside team in a do-or-die situation. Destry Comp, the Breaker keeper came up big and denied the Westside player giving the Newport team the championship.

Offensively the Breakers were led by Garcia, Ghamari, Siena Ward and Zoe Conley. The midfield was controlled by McKenzie Porteous and Megan Stevens. Jackie Singer, Paige Fults, Grace Vandervort and Faith Harper led the stingy defense. Comp played the entire tournament in goal and was outstanding. The Breakers, who were 21-0-0 in AYSO play capturing the McMillian, Area Q Plus and Cerritos Thanksgiving titles, now have a “Club soccer” title, will advance to play “up” in the under-12 division for spring select.