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Costa Mesa High School soccer players and coaches celebrate after earning the league title. (Photo courtesy of Leo Jarquin)
With a 4-0 win over Calvary Chapel at The Great Park Soccer Complex Monday night, the Costa Mesa High School boys soccer team achieved its first soccer league championship in more than two decades.
The victory over the Eagles and a 0-0 tie between the second place Saddleback Roadrunners against league rivals Santa Ana, all but sealed the Orange Coast League title for the Mustangs (9-4-3, 8-0-3) with only one game to go in the season.
“First of all, I am very proud of these boys. They had worked so hard to get this far. Three years ago I took over the program as the head coach with a dream of making history with these boys, I recruited two great coaches, Coach O and Coach Miguel, we sat at a restaurant and talked about how we can change the culture and mindset of the program,” said head coach Santiago Guzmán.
“We brainstormed and we knew it was going to take us two to three years to see the results. Now here we are with our first league championship after 22 years.”
After successive home draws against Saddleback (1-1) and Santa Ana (2-2), the Mustangs were able to culminate the feat, which had been eluding its soccer program since 2002 when Costa Mesa won back-to-back Pacific Coast League titles.
“Last Friday we played Saddleback at home where we were planning to clinch the league title and celebrate in our house, but we came up short as we tied the game 1-1,” added Guzmán.
“It was a really intense game as both teams wanted to win, at the end of the game I told the boys it was going to take the next game to clinch our title and last night the boys came out with all heart to beat Calvary Chapel 4-0 and claimed our title. I am so happy for these boys as they deserved and earned this title.”
—Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone
