They traveled north for a handful of matches in Bakersfield before making a pit stop in Santa Ana for the Excalibur Tournament.
After weeks of traveling, Santa Margarita’s girls soccer team concluded the nomadic portion of its schedule last weekend at the National Elite Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas.
The road is Eagles coach Chuck Morales’ best friend when it comes to preparation. While he and his team rack up the mileage, they also chalk up their fair share of wins along the way.
Santa Margarita played its first match on its home field Thursday afternoon, and behind Maggie Ghotbi’s two-goal performance, the seventh-ranked Eagles edged rival Mater Dei, 4-2, in a Trinity League matchup.
“I love to play away in the preseason,” Morales explained. “It’s rare that you’ll see me playing a home game. I want to put us under the pressure of traveling and playing opponents on their home field.
“It’s not the idea of having a squeaky clean record. It’s the idea of going into battle and going with all odds against us and being able to survive.”
The Eagles’ resolve and resiliency were tested early Thursday, as Mater Dei striker Olivia Ware scored the match’s opening goal in the third minute of play.
It didn’t take long for Santa Margarita to tie things up, as freshman forward Madison Louderback tapped in the match’s equalizer just three minutes after Ware’s strike.
“Obviously you don’t want to be down by a goal in the first 10 minutes of the game, so once we got that second goal, I feel like we picked it up a lot,” Ghotbi said. “We just thought, ‘OK, the second one’s coming. The third one’s coming.’ And we really just got into a groove.”
Ghotbi put the Eagles ahead for good on a 20-yard strike in the 10th minute.
She scored her second goal in the 17th minute, sweeping in a low, centering pass from Louderback for Santa Margarita’s third goal in just more than 10 minutes.
Mater Dei made things interesting in the second half when Ware drove home her second goal in the 54th minute, but Eagles forward Gwyneth George erased any doubt there might have been, capitalizing on a loose ball in the box to extend the lead to 4-2 late in the match.
“I thought we showed a lot of character today,” Monarchs coach Matty West said. “I was really impressed with our effort. Just give a lot of credit to Santa Margarita for how they played this afternoon.”
In the South Coast League:
No. 1 Aliso Niguel 2, Capistrano Valley 0: The visiting Wolverines won their fifth in a row as Olivia Abrecht and Tatia Dumbadse each scored a goal.
In the Pacific Coast League:
Corona del Mar 2, University 0: The Sea Kings improved to 3-0 in league by pitching a third consecutive shutout. Goalkeeper Skylar Guillick needed only two saves to preserve another clean sheet. Elise Roche and Taylor Rosen scored goals for CdM.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
