Costa Mesa girls’ soccer tops Calvary Chapel, records eighth straight shutout
A surefire way to prevent defeat is to keep a clean sheet, and that is all the Costa Mesa High School girls’ soccer team has done since the start of Orange Coast League play.
The Mustangs ran their shutout streak to eight matches with a 4-0 win over Calvary Chapel on Thursday at the Great Park in Irvine.
Sophomore Bryanna Elias scored twice for Costa Mesa (9-9-3, 7-0-1), which scored all four goals in the first half after being held scoreless in a draw against Calvary Chapel (7-4-1, 4-2-1) on Monday.
The Mustangs had the Eagles hemmed into their defensive third for most of the first half, attempting 11 shots (nine on target) to three wayward shots by Calvary Chapel before the break.
“I try to tell our players you have to act as if — it’s not true — but you have to act as if you don’t have the best goalkeepers in the world, so you try to prevent shots,” Costa Mesa coach Jason Boyce said. “If you can do that, you’re doing pretty well, so I was just happy that we continued our streak of not allowing a goal in league, so far.”
Freshman Tatiana Aguilar took a sharp-angled shot, on which Taylor Foss made the initial save, but Elias was there to score on the rebound in the 12th minute.
“We knew that we kind of had to win this game in order to basically be the champions of league,” Aguilar said. “We wanted to have fun and obviously go all out, and that’s what we did. We all talked about it and said we want to keep the motivation up, and whatever happens, happens, but give it our all.”
Aguilar then served a corner kick into traffic in the box two minutes later, junior Kyra Kirsch winning the ball in a crowd and sending it into an opening for Elias to run onto and double the Mustangs’ lead.
Junior Natalie Schwarzmann added a goal assisted by junior Itzel Ramirez in the 20th minute. On the fourth goal in the 26th minute, Ramirez played a through ball in the midfield to Schwarzmann, who sent the ball on to Kirsch, and she would cap the scoring.
Foss made five saves in the match, while sophomore Layla Cash made one save for the Mustangs. Emerson Newman authored the best scoring chance for the Eagles, whistling a shot past the top-right corner of the goal in the 46th minute.
“Our toughest competition is Santa Ana, so that’s who we want to win [against] and then go to CIF and make it far,” Elias said.
Costa Mesa faces Santa Ana (11-8-3, 6-2) on the road in its league finale on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.
The game was called midway through the second half after Calvary Chapel midfielder Hannah Radmilovich had to be carted off the field following a collision.
“Anything with a spine, you’ve just got to be extra careful,” Calvary Chapel coach McKenna Mejia said. “Our girls just weren’t in any position to finish the game.”
Mejia said her team was concerned about Radmilovich, who she said was taken to a hospital by emergency personnel to be monitored.
“Games come and go, but the health of each girl is definitely going to always be more important,” Mejia added.
Boyce also addressed the game-ending play, saying the Mustangs player who was involved was upset by the outcome.
“It was a very incredibly unfortunate situation because that player, she’s a fantastic player,” Boyce said. “I watched her play. Really good player, and it’s really unfortunate.”
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