Girls’ Soccer: Eagles blank CMHS
Brandi White seems to keep spraining her ankle on the soccer field.
She has tweaked it three times this season. The last time was two days before Estancia High returned from the holiday break. She went down during an alumni match on Jan. 4.
Coach Jessica Perry tried to keep her talented sophomore off her feet during the last 10 days. Perry let White return to action on Tuesday.
White ended up helping the Eagles get off on the right foot in Orange Coast League play. She used the foot that’s right to produce two goals, lifting the Eagles to a 2-0 victory against rival Costa Mesa at Jim Scott Stadium.
While White found the back of the net with her right foot, the Mustangs failed to score against Estancia (5-4-3, 1-0-0 in league) for the fifth straight time. The Eagles moved one step closer to claiming the Battle for the Bell rivalry for the fourth straight season.
Costa Mesa came close to ending its drought against Estancia early in the second half, but then the Eagles took over, thanks to Perry and nice passing.
Perry, as she did in the first half, didn’t start White in the second half. She substituted White in at the 60th minute. Four minutes later, the defending league champion Eagles went ahead.
Estancia beat the Mustangs (4-5-5, 0-1-0) with a ball over the top of the defense. Emily Rodriguez sent the ball to White, who managed to get in behind goalkeeper Brittany Carbajal just outside the box. With a wide open net, White dribbled in before scoring in the 64th minute.
The goal didn’t show up on the scoreboard, because the home team, Costa Mesa, didn’t turn it on. White ended up turning the lights off on the Mustangs in the 77th minute, and she didn’t expect to.
Before the ball reached White’s feet deep in the box, another midfielder who played with a sprained ankle set up the Eagles’ second goal. Alba Barrios found striker Alondra Guzman near the top of the box, where she beat a couple of defenders and attacked from the left.
“I was telling her, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’” White said. “Then she passed it [to me]. I was like, ‘Please don’t miss it.’”
White finished the play with ease.
Estancia’s defense, with Samantha Falasco, Judy Gonzalez and Stephanie Madrigal, made things easy for goalkeeper Caitlin Leahy for most of the evening. Leahy made seven saves, almost all in the second half against a young Mustang side.
Three freshmen, right back Regina Ranieri, midfielder Emily Olvera and forward Lesley Carrasco, started for Costa Mesa. If not for an injury to center back Sarah Javier, Coach Tamiko Davila said he would’ve started a fourth freshman.
One of the freshmen created one of the Mustangs’ best scoring chances. Ten minutes into the second half, Carrasco took a shot from atop that Leahy stopped.
“I’m really proud of the way we played. We’re extremely young and it’s exciting … for all the freshmen to get their first crack at Estancia, to know that they came out and they played them [tough],” said Davila, who has 11 freshmen on the team.
Perry came away impressed by Costa Mesa’s play.
“This Costa Mesa team, I don’t know what [Davila] did. He breathed new life into them,” Perry said. “They’re younger. They’re energetic. They’re going to give people a lot of trouble. They definitely gave us a run for our money.”