Pilot Cup: Eastbluff storms to semis
The Eastbluff Elementary fifth- and sixth-grade Gold Division girls are a very experienced team at the Daily Pilot Cup soccer tournament.
The girls are all sixth-graders and they have gotten results at the Pilot Cup. Three years ago they made the third- and fourth-grade Silver Division semifinals, then the Gold Division title match in 2013. Last year, they were the fifth- and sixth-grade Silver Division champions.
There is one thing that has eluded this particular team and the school, though.
“There’s never been a gold champion in the history of Eastbluff,” said Paul King, who coaches Eastbluff along with Jeff Cannon. “We would be the first, so we’re playing for that.”
Avery Doherty helped put her school two wins away from history.
Doherty’s hat trick lifted Eastbluff to a 7-2 win over Newport Heights in a Gold Division quarterfinal match Saturday at Jack Hammett Sports Complex.
Eastbluff will play an old nemesis, Mariners, in the semifinals on Sunday at 9 a.m. Davis plays Kaiser in the other semifinal. The championship match is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Kate Wynn had two goals and Sydney Sharp a goal and an assist for Eastbluff, which pulled away after its lead was trimmed to 2-1 late in the first half when Newport Heights’ Kenzie Kerrigan scored the first of her two goals.
The Eastbluff girls were upbeat after the quarterfinal win, and it was easy to understand why.
“We’re about to go get shaved ice,” Sharp said, before turning her attention to the semifinals Saturday morning.
A player from Mariners, Emma Kubiak, came over to Sharp’s postgame interview. Kubiak and Sharp know each other from running track, but also through soccer. It was Mariners that beat Eastbluff, 4-0, in the third- and fourth-grade Gold Division title game two years ago.
“We were the first Eastbluff team in forever to make it to the gold finals, but we lost,” Sharp said. “Mariners is like the only team that’s ever beat us really badly.”
Eastbluff, which has won two straight since opening the tournament with a 2-0 loss to Kaiser, certainly looked up to the task against Newport Heights. Doherty, the younger sister of Corona del Mar High girls’ soccer defender Ally Doherty, was a big reason why.
Doherty, who helped lead her club team, the SC Blues, to girls’ Under-12 Surf Cup and State Cup titles last year, also is a leader for Eastbluff. She scored the first two goals of the game, before Kerrigan responded late in the half.
But Eastbluff got another key goal just before halftime, when Wynn’s cross from the right bounced off a Newport Heights defender and in. That gave Eastbluff a 3-1 halftime advantage.
“That was huge,” King said. “We got our momentum back.”
Sharp had a nice through ball to Doherty, who put away the shot early in the second half for a 4-1 lead. Then Wynn nailed a hard shot from up top, and Eastbluff was cruising.
Sweeper Jilian Lorenz, Trinity Culmer and Lila Metherate led a stingy Eastbluff defense, for which goalkeeper Teddy King recorded eight saves.
Other contributors for Eastbluff included Bella Riccio, Caroline Cannon, Micaiah Espinoza, Alexis DiMaria, Mary Grace Anderson, Maddie Zacher, Sarah Edwards, Lucy Shattuck and Maya Adel.
Experience levels vary, Paul King said. Eastbluff is a school that does not group its Pilot Cup players by skill level necessarily, but by grade.
“It’s hard,” he said. “You get to the gold level, and everybody’s good, and you have less-experienced players that maybe are volleyball players, or dancers, or actors. But they all play together, and they’re all friends. Even though we have some non-soccer players on our team, they still love practicing and playing together.
“This year we had two girls show up in tennis shoes for the first practice. We had to tell them, ‘You have to go out and buy cleats.’”
First-half goalie Willa Rath made three saves for Newport Heights and second-half keeper Bella Ward made a pair of saves. The Sharks also were led by defenders Taylor Smith, Camryn More, Bridget Walton and Alyssa Sims, who had an assist on one of Kerrigan’s goals.
Delaney Coyne, Maddie Malouf, Olivia Gritzmacher, Ella Hopkins, Emily Fleener and Allison Ridley also contributed for Newport Heights.
“Eastbluff played a great game,” Newport Heights Coach Kim Coyne said. “I see them winning the whole thing. They deserved the win ... we were short-manned, we ended the game with 10 players, but no excuses. They flat-out outplayed us. Our girls tried hard. It just wasn’t our day.”
