Boys soccer: Eagles shut out Laguna Hills

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - Fortunately for the Estancia High boys soccer team, 40

minutes of high quality play was enough to defeat visiting Laguna Hills,

3-0, in nonleague action on Monday.

The Eagles (3-2-2) scored three goals in the first 20 minutes to take

control, but threw their play into cruise control for much of the second

half, much to the displeasure of Coach Steve Crenshaw.

“That is the biggest difference between last year’s team and this

year’s team,” Crenshaw said. “With last year’s group, they would give you

100% for all 80 minutes. Opposing teams can only handle so much of that

type of relentless pressure. We’re still not at that level yet, but my

biggest thing I have to keep reminding myself is that this is such a

young team.”

Sophomore Javier Millan scored two goals for the Eagles, while fellow

sophomore Nikolai Doudtchenko added a single goal.

“Javier has a great sense of the game,” Crenshaw said. “We’ve got

three guys who are capable of putting up some good numbers for us and

Javier is one of those guys.

The Eagles got their first goal in the ninth minute on good,

old-fashioned hard work from Millan. He blocked a Hawks’ clearing

attempt, controlled the loose ball, and ripped a shot that found the

lower-right corner of the goal.

A few minutes later, Millan again fought his way through three

defenders, won the loose ball battles and beat the Laguna Hills goalie to

give Estancia a 2-0 lead.

Doudtchenko, realizing the goalie was out of position, chipped a shot

over his head and past the Hawks’ defenders for a 3-0 advantage.

That was more than enough offense for Estancia’s defense. Crenshaw was

extremely happy with the play of the entire defensive core.

“This was one of the first games where the defense played as one tight

unit,” Crenshaw said. “They were really in sync back there and they did a

great job of shutting down any potential threats.”

In fact, Laguna Hills (4-2-3) only had one real hard shot on goal and

that came in the second half off the foot of forward Chris Turner.

Estancia goalie Giovanni Gonzalez (six saves) came up with the big

save and kept Laguna Hills off the scoreboard.

“The way we have to play is through ball control and relentless

pressure,” Crenshaw said. “I’m thinking our guys are afraid of screwing

up instead of pushing forward. That’s what happens with a younger team.”

The Eagles will look to continue the aging process on Wednesday at

home against La Costa Canyon High at 3 p.m.