Diablos Continue to Impress

Mission Viejo graduated eight players from its 1998 Southern Section Division I girls’ soccer championship team, but the Diablos continued their strong earlyseason play Thursday with a 1-1 tie against visiting Santa Margarita, the two-time defending Division II champions.

Mission Viejo, unranked in Southern Section polls, is 7-2-1.

“I’m very surprised,” Santa Margarita Coach Chuck Morales said. “For a year when they weren’t supposed to have anything, they look pretty good. They have a lot of jack rabbits out there and they work the ball around pretty good.”

Santa Margarita, third in Division II polls, is 1-1-3 after five games. The Eagles have five freshmen who are playing considerable minutes, so their team’s play has been somewhat inconsistent.

“We’re shaking things out right now,” Morales said.

Two of those freshmen--Daniella Bosio and Katie Rivera--combined to score the Eagles’ goal. With 25 minutes left and Santa Margarita trailing, 1-0, Rivera took a long pass from Bosio, turned and beat one defender, then dribbled by another and slipped the ball past goalkeeper Hannah Cochrun from eight yards away for her third goal of the season.

“That was magic, that goal,” Morales said. “Katie’s not necessarily aggressive. She’s slick. She’s not a big banger, but she can take a hit.”

Rivera’s goal came at a time when the Eagles were struggling to get scoring opportunities. They were outshot, 5-3, in the first half and they had trouble moving the ball past midfield.

“I feel we dominated them offensively,” Mission Viejo Coach Susie Daher said. “But we couldn’t get more of a lead because they were spectacular on defense.”

Mission Viejo scored midway through the first half on sophomore Jen Thais’ rebound goal. Thais rifled the ball past goalkeeper Lauren Kent after she picked up a shot that Kent had batted away.

The Diablos weren’t able to put much pressure on Santa Margarita’s second-half goalkeeper, Julie Peterson, who had only one save.

“We didn’t come out to attack,” Daher said. “We came out to defend. We have to work on that.”

Morales said his team tightened up its defense in the second half and got more aggressive on offense.

“[Lindsey Huie] was causing us problems in the first half, but we marked her out in the second half,” he said. “We moved a few more people forward in the second half and that gave us some more opportunities.”