Edison girls’ soccer outlasts rival for Excalibur tournament title
SANTA ANA — Riley Crooks will be gone in another couple of weeks, the first time she’ll not be a centerpiece within Edison High’s successful girls soccer program since ... well, her first few months in the womb.
Two more games, and “then I’m out of here,” noted Chargers head coach Kerry Crooks’ daughter, who’s off the weekend after next for the spring semester at Texas A&M — and to start work with legendary Aggies coach Gerland “G” Guerreri.
“It’s bittersweet, definitely,” Crooks said after helping Edison past Sunset League rival Los Alamitos 1-0 in overtime to win the Excalibur Tournament of Champions title Saturday night at Foothill High School. “I’m super excited to play at the next level, and to get to go early and get to work with the team earlier than I thought I could, that’s an amazing opportunity.”
It is, but it means stepping away two months before her senior season’s done. The All-CIF Southern Section selection is a fourth-year starter, second-year league MVP and a versatile defender stationed in central midfield, where everything revolves around her.
It’s her 20th season in the program, in one way or another, since her mother, now in her fourth decade as Chargers coach, became pregnant with her third child during the 2005-06 campaign.
The next season, Riley was strapped to mom, “in the frontpack or the backpack,” as mom puts it. She was born into this.
“I grew up going to Edison soccer,” Riley said. “I watched every team. My mom says I grew up on the Edison pitch. Like, literally.”
She gets two more games, Jan. 7 against Newport Harbor and Jan. 9 with Corona del Mar, both Sunset League, both at Edison. The latter will be senior night.
“It is bittersweet [to see her go],” Kerry Crooks said. “We’re happy that she has such a great opportunity there, she’s blessed with that. ... I’ve been coaching 35 years. I don’t think I’ve ever cried as much on senior night as I probably will on [Jan. 9]. And then Matt, my husband, and I fly her out [to Texas].”
Riley Crooks is going out on a tear, leading Edison (7-4-2) into league play with a seven-game unbeaten streak and triumph in one of the West’s most prestigious tournaments. Her presence in the middle, along with Olivia Romero-Green’s, was definitive in a 1-0 triumph claimed through Maile Izumita-Sousa’s goal eight minutes into a 10-minute overtime.
It was the Chargers’ first victory over a powerhouse Los Al program since January 2020, and first time winning the Excalibur tournament since 1997.
It required building a maze of sorts through midfield. The Griffins’ revered possession game could get only so far against Edison.
“It was a dramatic win, we’re super excited,” Kerry Crooks said. “They showed so much grit, they really did. Obviously, Los Al is very, very talented, but we just grind it out until the end. ... That’s what soccer is about, right? Grind it out. That’s what champions are made of.”
Edison reached the final on penalties after rallying midday Saturday for a 1-1 draw with defending champion Huntington Beach. Sadie Olivares converted a late PK won by Ayla Khoshkbariie to answer Bailey Oliver’s first-half strike from an Olivia Young free kick. The Chargers scored three goals in their first two victories, Thursday over Millikan and Friday against Etiwanda.
Los Alamitos (6-2-3) is capable of carving up teams through its brisk-passing possession game, but the Chargers cut off space behind Crooks, Romero-Green and Izumita-Sousa in midfield and along a backline of Jayden Rodriguez and Kalea Black.
“[Los Al’s] midfield is very, very good, but we worked super hard in the midfield, and our entire defense,” Riley Crooks said. “We knew what we had to do: We had to stay organized, we had to be aggressive, and I think we did just that.”
The approach forced the Griffins to “start bypassing, sending a lot of longer balls over the top,” Los Alamitos head coach Pat Rossi said.
“We were OK at that, but we’d rather pass through it,” Rossi said.
Los Al, missing key figures up top, created a half-dozen opportunities and got nowhere. Edison goalkeeper Tatum Trout made five saves, the biggest to parry Cameron Ainslie’s header from a corner kick with 12 minutes left in regulation, and Rodriguez and Izumita-Sousa cleared balls off or near the goal line.
Edison, most dangerous from set pieces and long throw-ins, won it from the debris of a corner kick, the ball eventually finding Romero-Green near the top of the box.
“I feel a [defender] on my right side, and my calves have been pretty tight, so I looked around,” Romero-Green said. “Riley bangs it in all the time in practice, so I just set it up for her.”
Izumita-Sousa, to the left and a few yards behind Romero-Green, was anticipating the feed.
“There’s not even any time left, and I thought, like, what’s to lose? Just go up and see if she’ll pass to me,” Izumita-Sousa said. “And she does, and I thought, like, the goal’s wide open. [Hit it] just as hard as you can, there’s only net. The [goalkeeper’s] only so big, and the goal’s so big.”
She soon was, in lieu of the customary trophy presentation, pulling a plastic sword from a plastic stone.
It was bittersweet, at least for the team captain who gets just two more games.
“[These last games are] pretty much everything,” Riley Crooks said. “I’ve played since I was a freshman, and playing for my mom, playing for the community, it’s my favorite thing ever. I’m going to miss it a lot.”
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