Santa Margarita Takes Step Up

Some traditions, like the high expectations, tough schedule and presence of top-notch players, were in place before the girls’ soccer season began at Santa Margarita High.

And the Eagles are determined that the seemingly annual tradition of winning Southern Section championships also will go on, despite changes in their lineup and level of postseason competition.

“Our goal is to win [a section title] again, like every other year,” said senior midfielder Shannon Foley, a Parade magazine and National Soccer Coaches’ Assn. of America preseason All-American. “We don’t want to lose. That’s our main objective. We just take each game one at a time, and everyone does their best. That’s all you can ask for.”

The Eagles (20-1-4 last season) have won the last two Southern Section Division III titles and have three titles in four seasons, winning Division II in 1997 and ’98. They will try for a similar finish in Division I this season.

Certainly, the Eagles are starting in a lofty position.

They are the No. 2 team in the nation, behind only Heritage of Colleyville, Texas, according Student Sports magazine’s preseason rankings.

Among other teams in the magazine’s top 25 are No. 4 San Clemente, No. 11 Mission Viejo, No. 12 Anaheim Esperanza, No. 13 North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and No. 23 Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley.

“The expectations are pretty high,” Foley said. “It gives us something to work for, something to live up to.”

Whether Santa Margarita will be able to do it is likely to depend upon an unsettled defense. Last season’s back line and goalkeeper Allyce Lawrence have graduated.

“I felt last year was the best team we ever had,” Coach Chuck Morales said. “We didn’t have any holes. It was set all the way around.... That group could do anything. This is way different.”

Juniors Michelle Hull and Alicia Fujii, seniors Stephanie De Almeida and Kelly Emsiek, and sophomore Courtney Krouse will split time as defenders. Junior Nicole Lokietz and sophomore Kori Lu are battling for the goalkeeper spot and will probably share the position early in the season.

The offense will revolve around Foley and sophomore forward Amy Rodriguez. Foley was a member of the Northridge-based West Valley Samba 16-and-under club team that won a national title in August, and she has given a commitment to Virginia. Rodriguez, part of the girls’ 16-and-under national-team selection pool, scored 10 goals as a freshman last season.

“They just play at a different level,” Morales said. “At the upper levels, you have to do that. You just have to learn to play faster and play at a higher level.”

The Eagles will jump to Division I for the postseason as a result of the Southern Section’s realignment of playoff groupings, which is based on strength of leagues rather than individual schools’ enrollments.

But the move is unlikely to faze the Eagles. They will face Division I-caliber competition in the Trabuco Hills and Excalibur tournaments this month, in nonleague matches against Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Harbor and Concord Carondolet, as well as in the Serra League.

“We play Division I, and we always have. The only time it changed was when we got to the playoffs,” Morales said. “It’ll make a difference for us at the end of the season because now, you’re playing the big boys. But the truth of the matter is, we’ve already been playing at that level.”

This season, they get a chance to make it official.