Mission Viejo Wins Excalibur Title

It was almost anticlimactic after two grueling semifinals featuring the county’s four best teams, but Mission Viejo dug deep for a 1-0 victory over Santa Margarita Friday at Foothill High to win its first Excalibur girls’ soccer tournament.

Stacey Mescher’s goal with 15 minutes remaining was all the eighth-ranked Diablos (7-1-3) needed to avenge last week’s 3-1 loss to the sixth-ranked Eagles (8-2-1).

“To beat a quality team after they really took it to you feels great,” Mission Viejo Coach Susie Daher said.

It was an evenly played game until midway through the second half, when Mission Viejo started making some noise. Mescher made a great run through three defenders but spoiled the drive with a shot straight into the hands of goalkeeper Allyce Lawrence.

Mescher got another chance a few minutes later and made it count. Juking around two defenders, she fired a fall-away shot that popped over the fingertips of Lawrence and into the goal.

“[Daher] told us to just keep shooting,” Mescher said of the halftime talk. “We worked really hard this week and it paid off.”

Last week’s loss to Santa Margarita seemed to wake up the Diablos, who tore through the tournament until they met No. 5 Woodbridge in the semifinals. After outscoring their opponents, 8-0, through the first three rounds, the Diablos forced their game against the Warriors into penalty kicks, when Bethany Hayes tied the score, 1-1, with two minutes remaining. Two strong saves by Katie Wright in the shootout helped the Diablos advance to the final.

In the other semifinal, No. 2 Capistrano Valley and Santa Margarita battled to a scoreless tie, then Santa Margarita advanced after the Cougars sent two penalty shots wide in the shootout.

“What an amazing tournament,” Daher said. “Any one of these four teams could have won the whole thing. Everyone played great soccer, but everyone was so tired. I knew whoever was still standing at the end would win.”

The exhaustion was evident in the third-place game between Capistrano Valley and Woodbridge, as both teams’ coaches let reserves play most of the game to give the starters some rest. The Warriors won on penalty kicks, 4-3, after a scoreless regulation.

In the consolation final:

No. 10 Edison 3, No. 4 San Clemente 1--Sascha Contreras scored two goals and Brooke Thulin had the other for the Chargers (11-1-3). The teams tied, 1-1, in a nonleague game earlier this month.

In the championship game at the San Gorgonio tournament:

Corona del Mar 2, La Crescenta Crescenta Valley 0--Orange County’s seventh-ranked team defeated Crescenta Valley to win the championship of the 48-team tournament. The Sea Kings defeated two-time defending champion Etiwanda, 2-1, in the semifinal. Jaycee Mahler had a goal and two assists, and Elisha Morgan, Allison Brawner and Alison Harvey also scored in the two wins.

In a semifinal game:

Crescenta Valley 0, Sunny Hills 0, (Crescenta Valley advances on penalty kicks, 4-3)--Christina Kim’s penalty kick put Sunny Hills, ranked ninth in Orange County, up 3-2, but Crescenta Valley scored on the next two kicks to advance to the championship game.

Stacy Pelphrey and Simi Phull also scored for the Lancers (13-0-1) during penalty kicks, and goalkeeper Nikki Fountas made two saves during regulation.

In the championship game at the Whittier Pioneer tournament:

Downey 1, La Habra 1 (Downey wins on penalty kicks, 5-4)--Rachel Willoughby scored in the 34th minute to give La Habra the lead, but Downey scored on a penalty kick late in the game to tie it up. Tournament MVP Breanna Truelove had nine saves for La Habra (12-2).