Tough Games Tuning Up Villa Park

Villa Park’s brutal schedule continued with its own tournament last weekend, and the Spartans, ranked second in the county, reached the championship match Saturday but lost to top-ranked Newport Harbor, 4-3.

Tournament MVP Kyndra Cox scored two goals in the final to lead Newport Harbor (5-1), whose only loss this season is to Long Beach Wilson.

Villa Park (4-2) started the week with a loss to fourth-ranked Santa Margarita and ended it with another loss, but Coach John Carcich said the early-season tests are just what he wanted.

“It’s obvious we can play with everyone,” Carcich said. “We made a lot of mistakes against Newport and only lost by one. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement and I know we can get there.”

Villa Park defeated unranked El Toro in the semifinals, 9-5, and fifth-ranked Marina in the quarterfinals, 6-5, in overtime.

“We led 5-3 in the fourth quarter,” Marina Coach Drew Netherton said. “Then Kristyn Pulver scores for Villa Park with 20 seconds left to get it to overtime and we lose in sudden death.”

Although Marina lost its next game to Santa Barbara, the Vikings bounced back to defeat 10th-ranked Corona del Mar for seventh place. Netherton, a U.S. men’s national team member, liked that victory because Corona del Mar’s coach is John Vargas, the U.S. men’s national coach.

“That was fun,” Netherton said.

Marina gets another shot at Villa Park this week, hosting the Spartans at Golden West College Wednesday at 4 p.m.

NATIONAL CONFLICT

The U.S. national team hosted the UPS Holiday Cup at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center last week and it caused some conflicts for two county high school players.

Rosary’s Natalie Golda, who has committed to UCLA, missed the Royals’ loss to two-time defending Southern Section champion Bell Gardens because she was playing with the U.S. B team in the UPS Holiday Cup. Golda scored two goals in the tournament.

Capistrano Valley junior Amber Stachowski also played for the U.S. B team and scored with six seconds remaining in a 10-10 tie with Russia Saturday. Stachowski had two goals in the game.

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