PREP ROUNDUP : Santa Margarita Breezes Through Vanguard Cup Field

The Santa Margarita girls’ soccer team was barely challenged throughout the three-day Vanguard Cup tournament at El Modena High and Saturday’s championship match was no different.

Annie Luke scored two goals to lead the Eagles to a 5-1 victory over the defending-champion Vanguards in front of a crowd of 325.

El Modena (3-2-1) was the first team to score against Santa Margarita (7-0) in the tournament. In pool play Thursday and Friday, Santa Margarita defeated Danville Monte Vista, 2-0, Los Alamitos, 4-0, and Mater Dei, 2-0.

The Vanguards scored in the 24th minute after Kaylee Whitfield controlled a throw-in from Nicole Terry and passed the ball in front of the goal to Jessica Dahlberg, who tapped it past goalkeeper Riki-Ann Serrins.

But the Eagles tied the score five minutes later after Ami Aylor sent a cross high in front of the goal and Luke knocked it back into the net.

“I thought that [El Modena] had the first 20 minutes of the game and then it evened out,” Santa Margarita Coach Chuck Morales said. “We made a few little tweaks at halftime and then stepped it up in the midfield.”

Of Santa Margarita’s 16 shots in the game, 11 came in the second half. The winning goal came 56 minutes into the game, after Erin Beattie passed the ball across the goal and Kristen Rose deflected it to Luke, who made her shot from about 25 yards.

Santa Margarita’s remaining three goals were scored by Aylor in the 68th minute, Rowe in the 73rd minute and Beattie in the 80th minute.

Key for Santa Margarita was containing Terry, a physical, 5-foot-9 senior forward. Suzie Mora, 5-5, did a solid job for the Eagles and was selected the tournament’s most valuable defensive player.

Luke was named the tournament’s offensive most valuable player and Serrins the most valuable goalkeeper.