HIGH SCHOOLS:Tourney should survive

Mark Arblaster expects the Newport-Mesa Cup to continue in some form and flourish.

The high school soccer tournament which features the four Newport-Mesa district schools, Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Estancia and Newport Harbor, encountered hiccups in its inaugural season, with problems occurring in both the boys’ and girls’ events.

The Costa Mesa and Estancia girls’ teams finished the season having played each other five times, twice in the Newport-Mesa Cup, and the boys’ teams never played each other.

Arblaster, the Newport-Mesa Club Soccer president and creator of the tournament, said eliminating the third-place game will lessen the possibility of teams playing each other twice.

Godinez, a first-year high school in Santa Ana that is in the Orange Coast League but did not field varsity teams this season, could begin to do so next season. That would reduce the number of league games in which the Mustangs and Eagles play against one another from three to two.

“I thought it went great,” Arblaster said of the tournament. “The feedback I got from the administration, the coaches, the players and the parents was great. Where else can you get local community competition? We’re going forward if schools want to do the tournament.”

Arblaster said Corona del Mar girls’ coach Bryan Middleton took control of the girls’ tournament and that he will need help with tournaments in the future.

On the boys’ side, Arblaster said the four teams just need to schedule games against one another to pull it off. He agreed with Newport Harbor Coach Ryan Hernandez that a tournament in the style of the girls’ teams would water down the annual contest for the perpetual Bell trophy between the Sailors and Sea Kings.

“I know how big the Corona del Mar-Newport Harbor game is,” said Arblaster, who’s son, Gavin, plays on the Sailors’ frosh-soph team. “You can’t put that into a formal tournament because it will lose its impact. That was never an idea. That’s not something we want to mess with. That’s a jewel.”

Estancia boys’ soccer coach Gannon Burks got a first-hand look at how it can change things. Late in the Eagles’ 1-0 loss to Corona del Mar in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs, the referee stopped play multiple times to move back the Estancia crowd.

“That’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen here in three years,” Burks said of the people who numbered twice the amount of bleacher seats available. “We’re lucky to have that type of support. He said they were pushing too far forward. That won’t be possible in a stadium. They just wanted their children to win.”

First, they were worrying about which game to attend because both were originally scheduled for 3 p.m. Then, there was relief when Corona del Mar’s match was moved up to 1 p.m.

A Corona del Mar goal with six minutes remaining broke a scoreless tie and prevented overtime that could have created an overlap between the two games.

The family rushed to Sage Hill to watch Chris Burke in his first game back since missing more than a month with an injury. The Lightning cruised to a 8-1 victory over NuView Bridge.

Both teams’ second-round contests are scheduled for Wednesday, which will start the emotions all over again.

Corona del Mar will play a road game at Orange, a 2-1 upset winner over Santa Ana Valley.

There was no such luck for Frazier, who is a senior. Frazier played part of the season unknowingly with a broken foot. She went down in pain in a Jan. 23 match against Laguna Beach. What came next was devastating.

Frazier tore her anterior cruciate ligament and when she had surgery to repair her broken foot, it was discovered she tore ligaments there as well, meaning she will not be able to play soccer for a year.

Albright, who started at safety for the CdM football team, help bounce the Eagles from the first round of the CIF Southern Division playoffs with a 44-40 victory Nov. 17.

DOMINIC PERRONE covers boys’ and girls’ high school soccer for the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at (714) 966-4613 or via e-mail at [email protected].