Guyot leads Estancia to league title

SANTA ANA — On the soccer field, Delani Guyot led Estancia High to an Orange Coast League title. Then the junior helped the Eagles share a league crown on the basketball court.

Guyot enjoyed quite a Wednesday night.

First, the midfielder scored the game-winning goal, leading the Eagles to a 1-0 win against Godinez at the Santa Sports Complex.

Thirty-four minutes after the soccer match, Guyot had a girls’ basketball game to play down the street at Godinez. She usually rushes to the basketball gym right after soccer, but this time she stuck around the pitch.

Guyot wanted to know if Estancia was the outright league champion.

“Ten minutes,” Guyot said, referring to how much time the Eagles expected to wait for the news. “I can’t wait!”

Guyot and her teammates had to hang around for 15 minutes. They didn’t mind after they found out at 6:41 that Laguna Beach tied Calvary Chapel, 1-1, ensuring Estancia finished all alone atop the league.

Guyot and her teammates celebrated by jumping up and down. Estancia went 7-1-2 in league with 23 points, one point ahead of Calvary Chapel (6-0-4 in league) and three points ahead of Laguna Beach (6-2-2).

Guyot made sure she and Estancia weren’t splitting a league championship as they did a year ago with Calvary Chapel. The difference was Guyot’s goal in the 63rd minute, when she used her left foot inside the box to chip a shot over goalkeeper Brittany Soriano’s head to break a scoreless tie.

“It wasn’t the most beautiful goal, but we’ll take it,” Estancia Coach Josh Juarez said. “We definitely willed that ball into the net.”

Juarez, in his first season at the helm of Estancia, guided a young side to first. The only setback the Eagles suffered was to Laguna Beach on Jan. 19.

“I think the best thing that could’ve happened to us during league was losing to Laguna Beach,” Juarez said.

Estancia responded after losing at Laguna Beach, 2-0. Estancia went on to win five of its final six matches in league, allowing only two goals during the unbeaten stretch.

The backline of Brandi White, Samantha Haynes, Elizabeth Esquivel and Lexina McDowell played a vital role to the defense blanking four of those league opponents. The quartet limited Godinez, which outside of Lizzet Arroyo’s shot near the endline in the 13th minute, never threatened goalkeepers Annie Mitchell and Monique Mendoza.

Mitchell and Mendoza split halves, combining for five saves. Mitchell played the first half. Before Mendoza got her chance, Juarez addressed the team at halftime. He didn’t like what he saw in the first half, saying his team looked lethargic.

“I know there [were] a lot of nerves for today, so I think that [might have] got the best of us to start this game,” said Juarez, whose team went into Wednesday in second place in league, one point back of first-place Calvary Chapel and one point ahead of third-place Laguna Beach. “In the second half of this game, we had a good talk at half. We understood that we just weren’t going to be given a win today. We were going to have to earn it.”

The Grizzlies, which finished fourth in league at 4-6-0, kept it scoreless with midfielder Jennifer Ramirez possessing the ball and with the help of the crossbar and posts.

Katarina Freiberger saw her shot from outside the box hit the crossbar in the 27th minute. In the 54th and 58th minute, Freiberger’s ball hit the lower right post and then the upper left post.

The goal kept denying the junior.

Freiberger let someone else take aim at the goal, and there was no stopping Guyot. Freiberger, from the left, sent over the ball to Guyot, who tapped it over the keeper for a goal.

Guyot’s evening wasn’t over. She had a basketball game to get ready for and another league title to claim.

A couple of hours later, she and the Eagles split first with Laguna Beach, both finishing 9-1 in league. Guyot, a guard, came off the bench and produced two points and three rebounds in Estancia’s 42-32 win at Godinez.

In one night, Guyot was part of two league championship teams, in two different sports. This marked the second straight season her soccer and basketball teams placed first.

What a way to close out the regular season in both sports. Next week it is playoff time for Guyot and her teams.