Mustangs share league title

COSTA MESA — The Costa Mesa High girls’ soccer team isn’t accustomed to sharing with others. So that might explain why no one was in much of a celebratory mood, after the Mustangs claimed a share of their seventh straight league championship Tuesday night.

Of course the regular-season-ending 1-0 loss to visiting Laguna Beach in an Orange Coast League clash at Estancia High also gave Mesa Coach Dan Johnston reason to remind his players to keep their chins up moments after the final whistle.

The loss, combined with Estancia’s 3-2 come-from-behind win earlier at the same field, created cross-town co-champions. Both Costa Mesa (10-6-7, 5-1-2 in league) and Estancia finished with six points (one point for a win and one-half point for a tie). Since the two head-to-head meetings were both ties, Estancia Coach Jessica Gatica said a coin flip will be used to decide the league’s No. 1 representative in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Johnston said he was unaware of the tiebreaker procedure and didn’t know about any coin flip.

Regardless of the outcome of the coin flip, Costa Mesa and Estancia can call themselves league champions, a first in many seasons for the Eagles.

“Give credit to Estancia,” Johnston said. “[The Eagles] came back from two goals down and played extremely well in that second half [against Calvary Chape] and they earned their part of the title. So, congratulations to them.”

Johnston, however, was hardly as enthused by the play of his team.

“I’m not happy at all,” he said. “Not to make excuses, but we had everybody hurt, and the players that are hurt, didn’t play as well. But, also, if you’re suited up, you’ve got to do your job and we didn’t do it.”

Johnston was critical of his offense for repeatedly failing to fire shots on goal. And he was more than disappointed by what he called a lack of defensive focus, particularly on the sequence that led to the game’s only goal.

“The set piece that they scored on was a cheeseball, stupid foul that set it up,” Johnston said. “And then, it was just pathetic defense. We let two players run free in the box. [Goalie Jessica Rubright] had no chance on that. She made a chance out of it by making a good play on the ball, but there’s nothing she could do about that [goal]. We haven’t played defense that badly on a set play in two years. It’s just crazy to throw a game away like that. I think part of it was we were hyped for the game and, when you’re hyped, you make dumber mistakes, I guess. We played [poorly].”

Costa Mesa had 12 shots, five more than the Breakers (10-4-9, 4-2-2), who claimed third place and an automatic playoff berth. Laguna Beach goalie Laura Mills made four saves, while Rubright made two.

“I’m especially upset at the fact that all the hard work we did to get the ball up top ... and then we shoot the ball over the top of the net. That’s ridiculous ... That’s just pathetic,” Johnston said.

Laguna Beach scored in the 23rd minute, when junior defender Kelsey Peterson punched the ball past Rubright, who charged out of the net to try to beat Peterson to a pass from Breakers senior Holden Penny.

Dana Gentling had five shots for Costa Mesa, for which Natalie Argueta fired two shots. Gentling, Argueta, Ayla Medina, Kristina Roche and Teagan Labare were consistent catalysts for the Mustangs.

And Roche made the visitors’ best defensive plays of the night, including retreating behind Rubright to redirect a shot that was headed for the net in the seventh minute.

Johnston said Roche was playing through an injury, as was Brooke Urmson.

Adding bad news on the injury front was the loss of midfield standout Cheyenne Lopez to an unspecified injury to her right knee in the 35th minute. Lopez was involved in a convergence of players near the top of the box. She appeared to leap over a sliding Rubright, and remained on the ground after landing hard. She required assistance to reach the bench and her availability for the postseason was not known.