Eagles’ result:

COSTA MESA — Lit on the scoreboard was a result rare to the Estancia High boys’ soccer team.

Only once have the Eagles lost this season.

They never dropped a home match until Saturday afternoon.

Fortunately for the Eagles, the team displayed on the visitor’s side read “Alumni” and not a real high school team’s name.

This one didn’t count in the standings.

Some of the old-timers playing in the Estancia alumni match taught the youngsters a thing or two during a 9-4 victory at Jim Scott Stadium.

The Eagles (11-1-6, 3-0-2 in Orange Coast League) are chasing history and Coach Gannon Burks put on an exhibition for them so they could relate and learn.

What better way to accomplish this than have four former players remind the Eagles of the ultimate prize?

Edson Anaya, Armando Ortiz, John Alderete and Freddy Murillo showed up and threw on their old-school red jerseys. None of them matched, some wore white shorts, others blue.

One thing uniting the foursome is being a part of Estancia’s last team to claim a CIF Southern Section championship.

That 1999-2000 season the Eagles dominated the competition, finishing with a 20-1-1 record and the Division IV title.

To the current crop at Estancia, Anaya, Ortiz, Alderete and Murillo might look old and out of shape, but they were part of one of the school’s two section championship teams.

“They know who we are,” said Ortiz, a 2001 graduate.

Ortiz’s introduction to some might’ve been awkward. He whiffed on a great scoring opportunity in the box early on.

Most understood why Ortiz wasn’t the same player who earned first-team All-Pacific Coast League honors as a midfielder.

“My mind thinks faster than my body can move,” Ortiz said.

The later it got in the match, that seemed to be a lot of the old-timers’ excuse.

Robert Castellano, the alumni coach, heard it and thought it might hurt the team.

But Burks decided to play three 35-minute periods, instead of the usual 40-minute halves. Not because many of the old-timers can’t last that long on the pitch. They all wanted to play.

With 36 alumni players, the Eagles played against three teams. It felt that way to the varsity players. They saw their usual assistant coach substitute alumni players in and out without the referee’s permission.

Castellano, a 1999 graduate, knew he could get away with it. Burks was the ref and his 4-year-old daughter Bailey Ann was out there on the field with him, trying to blow on the whistle to stop play.

She couldn’t blow the whistle hard enough so players could hear.

The old-timers took advantage. They stayed fresh early on. Helping them to a 2-0 lead in the opening period was a recent grad in Eric Duarte.

Duarte, a freshman at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., flew to Costa Mesa for this occasion. He looked great, teaming up with his brother Pedro on a goal.

For some reason, one of Duarte’s teammates didn’t look so healthy afterward.

Murillo was hurting. His feelings had nothing to do with junior Brian Escobar converting a penalty kick on goalkeeper Danny Calderon late to cut the alumni lead to 5-4.

A teammate accused Murillo of puking after he came out. Murillo took offense.

“No throwing up,” the 2001 graduate said. “I was coughing my lungs out. It’s been about two months [since I last played].”

More like two years if you watched Murillo on the sideline after playing 10 minutes of defense.

This was a member of the Eagles defense recording 13 shutouts during the 1999-00 championship season.

“It was Friday night [the night before],” Murillo said. “You know how that goes.”

Murillo sat out the rest of the way. The idea of eating after the match was unlikely.

There was a barbecue afterward. The alumni finished business, producing four more goals, including one by Ortiz to put the match away.

Ortiz made up for his earlier scoring blunder. More importantly to Noe Marin, a senior defender, seeing Ortiz and the rest of the former players return will surely push the Eagles to win league and section titles. Estancia is currently ranked No. 4 in the Division IV coaches’ poll.

“It’s always good to see alumni come back and play with us, the younger guys, especially because there were [players from] the 2000 [team],” Marin said. “It’s always good to see them … evaluate us and see if we have the opportunity to win it again.”

If you asked the former players, including Hugo Casillas, a former professional soccer player with the Tecos club in Mexico, the Eagles are an extremely talented group.

With three regular-season matches left before the playoffs, the current team was grateful the old-timers returned to Estancia.

“Without them, we couldn’t make this day possible,” Burks said. “I kept the [old] jerseys nice just so there could be occasions like this. More people are taking notice of the team. I think this kind of reminds [the former players] of the 2000 team. We only have one loss.”

If you asked the old-timers, they handed Estancia its second loss of the season.