Mission Viejo Invitational Soccer Tournament : Hawks Beat Just-United Orange United

Tom Manulkin got the call Thursday night. It was his youth soccer coach with news that the season was starting early--as in early the next morning.

Manulkin, 14, had just returned from a Lake Arrowhead vacation with his parents, and he hadn’t played soccer since February. But Friday morning he was one of 11 Orange United players competing in the Mission Viejo Invitational Soccer Tournament. Eleven players--the bare minimum for soccer--were all Orange United coaches could round up after they were asked Thursday morning to replace a team that had canceled.

Robbie Fisher got the call Friday night after returning from a week of cross-country training in Mammoth. With Fisher, who will be a sophomore at Villa Park High School in the fall, and with a couple of other players added, Orange United had the luxury of a few substitutes.

However, it still wasn’t the same team that was the under-16 runner-up in the California youth soccer championships this year.

That’s why Gary Manulkin, Tom’s father and an “assistant-assistant coach,” seemed a bit surprised Saturday afternoon that the team even had a chance to advance to the tournament’s final. Orange United went into Saturday’s game against the Diamond Bar Hawks knowing that the winner would advance to the final.

On the sideline, watching the second half of the game against the Hawks, the elder Manulkin explained that practice was scheduled to start Monday for his son at Mater Dei. Martin Stringer, the Monarchs’ soccer coach, was planning to put the team through a week’s conditioning.

“That was going to be our hell week,” Manulkin said. “Instead this is our hell . . . “ His sentence was cut short by his own yelp and cheers for the first goal of the game, by Orange’s Alex Martinez.

After Freddy Romo scored to put Orange ahead, 2-0, there was a excitement on the Orange sideline. Orange United beat Diamond Bar in the semifinals of the state tournament this year, but a victory in this tournament would have been considered an upset.

But the upstarts were stopped quickly by Diamond Bar. Three Hawk goals in about six minutes ended Orange’s chances. Manulkin, the player, watched the three goals from the sideline, fearing that he had pulled his left hamstring.

Going for its second consecutive Mission Viejo Invitational Championship, Diamond Bar will play the North Huntington Beach Football Club at 2 p.m. today at the Mission Viejo Lake Youth Athletic Park in the under-16 division. Orange United will play the Junior United Soccer Assn. Banditos at 9:15 a.m. for third place.

In the boys’ under-19 semifinal round today, the North Huntington Beach Football Club will play Cal Express at 8 a.m. and the Corinthians will play Mission Viejo Pateadores Gold at 9:15 a.m. In the girls’ under-19 semifinal round, the Shooting Stars will play Mission Viejo United at 8 a.m. and the Villa Bratz will play the Football Club Heat at 9:15.

Finals will be at 4 p.m. today.