It Was a Fitting End to a Fitful Day : High school soccer: Granada Hills’ best player ejected in uninspired 3-0 loss to Chatsworth, which followed a window being shot out of Highlander coach’s car.

There are days that try men’s souls--even men like Granada Hills High soccer Coach Pete Mabie, who meets adversity with a sarcastic joke and a wry laugh--and Wednesday afternoon was such a day.

Shortly before the Granada Hills-Chatsworth match, someone shot out the window of Mabie’s car, parked in the school’s lot.

Then his team took the field, played miserably and lost, 3-0, in a key Northwest Valley Conference contest.

“What a good conclusion to a crappy day,” Mabie quipped. “My car window is shot out during fifth period, then we lose the game. This is perfect. I can’t complain.”

With his team trailing, 2-0, at halftime, he complained at great length. After emphatically lecturing his team, he threw up his hands in disgust and walked away from the huddle, leaving defender Darin Halfend to stand up in front of his seated teammates and try to organize them.

In keeping with the day’s theme, the situation worsened.

Mabie’s best player, forward Angel Gomez, fell while going for a loose ball early in the second half, landed awkwardly and stayed on the ground. The referee halted the action for Gomez, who began limping off the field but whose mouth was unaffected by the tumble.

He argued and yelled at the Chatsworth players, for which he received first one yellow card, then a red card when he would not keep quiet.

Seeing that he was ejected, Gomez wheeled around and sprinted across the field toward the object of his anger, Chatsworth midfielder Trevor Schmidt. Gomez was corralled by a handful of teammates before he reached Schmidt and was led off the field. He will miss today’s regular season finale against first-place Kennedy.

“You talk long enough to Angel and he’ll snap, which is what he did,” Mabie said. “It’s his fault--he opened his mouth. That red card really hurt us for (the Kennedy match).”

All this came one day after Highlander Doug Paul became the fourth Granada Hills player this season to suffer a broken leg.

Granada Hills (7-3-3, 3-1-2 in conference play) dropped into a second-place tie with the Chancellors (8-5-1, 4-2), which won only two matches last season but improved dramatically under first-year coach Desmond Willows.

Ignacio Garcia, Eli Chavarria and Mike Preiss scored for Chatsworth.