Sharks keep attacking

For a video, click here.

For a photo gallery, click here.

COSTA MESA — The target is on the backs of the young skilled boys of Rea Elementary, but no one seems able to hit the mark and knock them out.

For the better part of the Daily Pilot Cup’s nine years, Rea has owned the boys’ fifth- and sixth-grade division. The Sharks have won seven titles. This year they are vying for their third straight Cup, and they showed Saturday they are on the right track.

Victoria couldn’t stop them. Rea advanced to today’s semifinals after a 6-2 win at the Costa Mesa Farm Complex.

The Sharks dynasty, apparently, isn’t solely about skill. It has much to do with mentality.

“I hope [the Sharks] come on this team and expect to win because we expect to win,” said Coach Ryan Baker, who is also the Daily Pilot Cup coordinator at the Costa Mesa school. “They come in since the first day of school and they know about the coveted 15 spots on the gold team that they all fight for. We had 104 kids in the fifth- and sixth-grade come out and we have six teams. All but two of them advanced to the quarterfinals.”

Baker’s team appears unstoppable. But he knows two more teams will try to take Rea off its throne. Mariners Christian did it back in 2006.

Newport Heights will try to do it today in a semifinal at 10:30 a.m. The winner moves on to the championship at 3 p.m. to play against the winner of the Carden Hall-Mariners matchup.

Rea wants to stay on top. It seemed after the Sharks title-game loss to Mariners Christian in 2006, they only intensified their efforts, gaining more participation from the kids at the school.

This year, 200 soccer players came out to play for Rea at the Daily Pilot Cup. There are about 350 eligible to play in the third- and fourth-grade and fifth- and sixth-grade levels.

Baker said Rea won’t have such robust numbers in the future. This is the last year Rea will have such a large enrollment because next year the school will drop to just one fifth-grade class. This year, Whittier and Pomona kept would-be Rea fourth-graders and had them finish at their elementary schools, Baker said. The process will continue in the years to come.

For now, Baker wants Rea to continue to dominate.

That’s just what the Sharks did against Victoria.

Before the midway point of the second half, the game appeared out of reach for Victoria, as Rea built a 5-1 lead. Pablo Arriago scored the Sharks’ first two goals to give his team control. Martin Andrade scored on a header after a corner from Gerson Salgado to put Victoria on the scoreboard. But left-footed speedster Marlon Nava answered back to stretch Rea’s lead to 3-1.

Luis Perdomo scored the next two goals for the Sharks and Danny Gonzalez rounded out Rea’s scoring.

Gerardo Camacho also scored for Victoria.