South Coast Takes Its Place at the Top

Move over Sunset League. It appears that the South Coast is ready to take over as the county’s toughest league in girls’ soccer.

After featuring the strongest league competition for much of the 1990s, the Sunset League has lost some of its depth and now, from top to bottom, the South Coast is the best.

Five of the six South Coast teams competed in the recent Excalibur tournament, with four finishing in the top 10 of the 32-team bracket. The Sunset sent four teams, and only Edison, which won the consolation championship, finished in the top 10. All six teams in the South Coast have a .500 winning percentage or better, while three teams in the Sunset have losing records.

The power swing began last season with the emergence of San Clemente in the South Coast. The Tritons made their first playoff appearance in school history and were in the hunt for the league title until the end of the year.

This season, add to the mix a talented El Toro squad, a Dana Hills team backed by one of the county’s best goalkeepers and a young Trabuco Hills team that is always capable of an upset and should put up a fight for third place.

“I don’t think you can pick the top three teams in our league right now,” Capistrano Valley Coach Jack Peterson said. “Capo and Mission are obviously the favorites, but all the other teams are very strong and you can’t let down for anyone.”

Four of the South Coast teams have made appearances in the county’s top 10, with Capistrano Valley and Mission Viejo currently ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. San Clemente was ranked as high as No. 4, but fell out of the top 10 after a mediocre performance at the Excalibur. El Toro made its debut at No. 10 this week.

The Sunset League was expected to be dominant again, but that promise hasn’t translated into results.

Eighth-ranked Edison and No. 9 Esperanza will battle for the league title. Fountain Valley, coming off an upset of San Clemente, appears to have a leg up on Marina and Los Alamitos for third, and Huntington Beach is a distant sixth.

Edison is coming on. The Chargers, who finished third last season, were shaky at the beginning of the season, but have rebounded, winning four of five games at the Excalibur, including a 3-1 victory over San Clemente in the consolation championship.

Esperanza, while loaded with talent, is still an unknown quantity, not yet having played any of the county’s top teams.

Marina, which stayed in the title chase until the final week of league last season, was ranked ninth in the county two weeks ago. Since then, the Vikings have been looking for answers, after disappointing losses to Valencia and Sunny Hills, a scoreless tie against Canyon, and the worst beating of the Excalibur tournament, a 7-1 loss to Aliso Niguel.

Los Alamitos is inconsistent. The Griffins beat El Toro, 2-0, but just edged Foothill and lost to Dana Hills. They won the Ocean View tournament, but then lost to Canyon the next day.

A number of questions will be answered in both leagues next week.

Capistrano Valley, hoping to win its fifth consecutive league title, plays at San Clemente Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. and plays host to Mission Viejo Thursday at 3 p.m. The Diablos open with Dana Hills Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

In the Sunset League, Edison hosts Los Alamitos Thursday at 3:15 p.m. and Marina plays at Esperanza Thursday at 4:45 p.m.

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League Favorites

Academy: St. Margaret’s

Century: Canyon

Empire: Loara

Freeway: Sunny Hills

Garden Grove: Garden Grove

Golden West: Ocean View

Olympic: Orange Lutheran

Orange: Brea Olinda

Pacific Coast: Corona del Mar

Sea View: Woodbridge

Serra: Santa Margarita

South Coast: Capistrano Valley

Sunset: Edison